IF I COULD DO IT AGAIN

BY

BOB WRIGHT

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I can't be sure of the exact copyrights for these characters, but the personage of John Carpenter is as good as any. At any rate, enjoy the story.

October 30, 1978

3:02 a.m.

The skies over the lonely rural stretch of road were as dark as one might expect given the hour. An uneasy wind whipped through the fields, rattling the branches of the nearby trees. It was as if the witching hour was indeed at hand.

As such, it was only too fitting that at that moment, the sky lit up with a blinding light and several supersonic bangs, which would have been impressive to see and hear if any motorist had been driving by. Out of the phenomena, a solitary figure fell from the sky and landed with a thud on the ground. It waited until the lights subsided and the night became dark again before rising up and looking around.

It had been a long trip back in time for Michael Myers. By his own estimates, he'd sent ten people to their makers. when he'd broken into the facility and activated the time travel machinery. Ever since he'd learn time travel had been attained, he knew what he'd wanted to use it for.

For Michael, the thrill of the stalk wasn't what it had once been. Long after his first escape from Smith's Grove, he'd looked upon his sworn purpose in life with great enthusiasm. Time, however-and the numerous assassination attempts on him-was finally catching up with him. He no longer had the power he'd once had, and killing was no longer as thrilling for him. In short, Michael A. Myers had decided to hang it up.

But first, he wanted one last treat: to relive the greatest night of his life: his first murderous spree in Haddonfield in 1978. And this time, he intended to do things a bit differently, just to see what it felt like-and because he knew he could. During his last incarceration, Michael had been locked up for some time with Dr. Thaddeus Clugg, a deranged former magician whose primary methods of execution had been to capture his victims, let them sweat for some time, and then kill them in an overly theatrical way. By these methods, over twenty-five people had met gruesome fates before Clugg had been captured. His relating of his feats had so impressed Michael that he'd resolved to try it himself his next (and last) time out-simply wandering around waving a knife had become far too monotonous over time. As luck would have it, on Halloween of 1978, Dr. Clugg had been performing in a town just ten miles east of Haddonfield. All Michael needed to do was obtain some of the good doctor's equipment and go home. And then go after Her. While it was regrettable that he wouldn't be able to catch her and her friends by surprise as he initially had if he did it the way he was hoping to do it now, at least She'd be dead immediately, and he'd thus have fulfilled his destiny from the very start. And then he'd simply jump back into the future, hijack the first flight to South America, and live out the rest of his days in peace and quiet.

Michael looked around his landing area. He wasn't exactly sure where he'd come out, but he recognized his general location: about two hundred and ten miles to the northwest of Haddonfield. He now needed some way to get there in time to keep to his plan. He mulled over his possibilities...

...and was taken by surprise when a hand suddenly fell on his shoulder. "Hiya bud," slurred a clearly intoxicated tramp in shabby, oversized clothing, "Ya hear that thunder a couple minutes ago? Twern't callin'-HIC-for rain, ya know. Come on and-HIC-bunk up with me, buddy, and have a sip."

He dragged Michael towards his rudimentary campsite at the edge of the field by the woods and extended a whiskey bottle towards his "new friend." Michael eyed the tramp over. He was clearly an irrelevant transient; no one would miss him if he disappeared, and his death probably wouldn't affect the future much, if at all. In a flash, he drew his knife and let the tramp have it in the chest. So drunk was the tramp that he only managed a low, garbled groan as he slumped to the ground. Michael grabbed him by the feet and dragged him into the woods. Within minutes, he'd changed into the tramp's clothes and began lumbering deeper into the woods, inexorably towards Haddonfield...toward Her...