Hearts and Daggers

Chapter Twenty-Two

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Halloween series in anyway =(. But I DO own Katarzyna, Emmy and my other OCs.

Chapter Twenty-Two

(A year and a half later)

 Emmy= 8 1/2

 Kat= 26

Emmy’s POV

I couldn’t sleep as I listened to a particularly violent gust of wind beat against my window, the crisp, colorful leaves landing on the sill. Sitting up and sliding out from my bed, I walked over and pushed the window open, letting the leaves blow into my room, a few tangling in my hair. I took a deep breath of the fresh, autumn air and leaned against the sill, looking out into the backyard, not even hearing my door opening.

“What are you doing awake?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” I responded.

“I couldn’t sleep so I went downstairs to try and get a head start on one of my papers. I’ve been listening to you toss and turn for the last twenty minutes,” my mom said as she walked further into the room and brushed the leaves out of my hair. I noticed that she had yet to even change out her jeans and sweater from early that day.  

Ever since Michael was killed, mommy had the worst time sleeping. For the first couple of months, I could hear her muffled crying coming from her room, and in the months after that, she would have nightmares that would wake her up with a shrill scream. Now, she did whatever she could to avoid sleeping.

“What class?” I asked, avoiding her question again. Not long after that night, it was obvious, even to me, that mommy had become depressed, only ever showing emotion around me and Laurie. Somehow, Dr. Loomis and Laurie teamed up and were able to get her to go back to school, with the assurance that Laurie had no problem spending more time with me and I had no qualms about being with her. Soon, she was majoring in Nursingand threw herself into her work, leaving her world to revolve solely around me and school.

“Psychology,” she said, “Now stop stalling and answer my question: what are you doing up?”

“I couldn’t sleep either,” I said quietly with a shrug. I crawled back into bed as my mom walked over to the window and closed it securely. She crossed her arms and sat on the bed beside me.  

“Is it because Halloween is coming up soon?” she asked quietly and I knew we were thinking the same thing. I stopped myself from shrugging again and instead looked at the butterfly designs on my comforter.

“Dr. Loomis once said that Michael always came back around Halloween,” I said, my voice small, “But Halloween is next week and there hasn’t been any sign of him,”

Mommy sighed, “Emmy, the wounds Michael endured were really bad. Dr. Loomis told me the same thing the Medical Examiner told him: nothing could survive that many bullet wounds and blood loss,”

“They blew him up once and he survived!” I practically yelled, remembering the time I listened in on Dr. Loomis telling mommy all the ways they tried to kill Michael.

“He got far enough away from the blast that he was only seriously injured, not killed. Michael may have a very high threshold for pain and he may able to handle things that most people can’t, but at the end of the day, he’s still human,” she explained sadly.

“So, you’ve given up on him?” I asked, angry at myself when I felt tears well up in my eyes.

“No!” she said sharply before catching herself and continuing in a softer voice, “No, I didn’t give up on Michael nineteen years ago and I’m not giving up now. But at the same time, I need to also accept the fact that maybe this time, he couldn’t cheat death,”