Джон Пассарелла: Halloween: The Official Movie Novelization

And her granddaughter looked down at the bloody knife as if she had no idea what to do with the damn thing. Smiling, Laurie prayed she’d never have to find out.

“This is it…” Laurie said weakly. “Let me sit here until…”

“Mom, no!” Karen exclaimed. “We’re getting you help.”

“Grandmother, please,” Allyson said, her voice strained with emotion. “Don’t give up!”

Sagging in their arms, fighting through the pain, Laurie quirked a smile. “Strode women never do.”

“Look!” Karen yelled, waving frantically. “Someone’s coming.”

Hearing the rumble of an approaching truck, Laurie turned her throbbing head around and saw a pair of headlights zooming toward them. Allyson waved her free hand above her head as well.

The vehicle—an old red pickup—slowed and came to a stop beside them.

A gray-haired man in a plaid shirt and jeans leaned over and rolled down the passenger window. “Need a lift?”

“We need to get to the hospital,” Karen said. “Right away!”

“She’s hurt bad,” Allyson said.

“Happy to oblige, but don’t think you’ll all fit.”

“That’s okay,” Karen said. “We’ll ride in the back.”

While Allyson propped Laurie up against the side of the pickup, Karen lowered the gate, climbed up into the bed, and then helped Allyson lift Laurie up with as little jostling as possible. Even so, Laurie gasped in pain several times. Eventually, all three of them sat lined up against one side of the truck’s bed, Laurie supported on either side.

As the pickup drove down the road, veering around the police cruiser stranded in the middle, Allyson looked back one last time at the raging fire and the disintegrating skeleton of Laurie’s house.

Embracing a sense of calm she hadn’t known since she was Allyson’s age, Laurie closed her eyes…

Trapped within the basement of the burning house, The Shape rises within the encircling flames, heedless of the intense heat, and climbs the stairs even as they too burn .

Wrapping both hands around the steel bars of the trap, The Shape attacks the locked security gate with inhuman strength and fury, rattling the cage within its housing. The dark force that drives The Shape, that endlessly seeks to fulfill its purpose, does not tire or waver, does not stop or surrender—and continues to fight for the freedom to serve the purpose…

When the flesh of The Shape’s palms begins to cook against the hot metal bars, the struggle continues. When the stairs beneath The Shape begin to char and crumble , the struggle continues. When the air The Shape breathes sears The Shape’s lungs, the struggle continues. When the coveralls catch fire and the Mask begins to bubble and melt into The Shape’s hidden face, the struggle continues. And when all the flesh of The Shape’s body begins to sear and sizzle, the struggle continues…

Burned hands rattle the cage—

—breathing becomes tortured, ragged—

—burned hands continue—

—heartbeat slows—

—The Shape—

—struggles…

The rocking of the old pickup truck became hypnotic.

Lethargy crept over Allyson’s body, lulling her toward sleep.

Then the clink of metal on metal startled her awake. She looked to her left, at her grandmother’s head, tilted back against the edge of the truck bed. On the other side of Laurie, Allyson’s mother stared into the night, her face etched with grief and worry, for the loss of her husband and the life of her mother.

For a frightening moment, Allyson couldn’t tell if her grandmother was breathing. She feared Laurie had died while Allyson drifted off to sleep. Then her grandmother’s right hand reached out and covered Allyson’s left, as if to reassure Allyson she was still among the living. But her hand was cool, her grip feeble. She’d lost a lot of blood.

Allyson squeezed Laurie’s hand, willing her to stay with them and become the mother and the grandmother fate had stolen from them, but also to embrace who she was at heart, the brave woman who always fought valiantly for her life.

“Grandmother…?”

Laurie spoke softly, “Not today, kiddo.”

Allyson smiled, a lump in her throat.

Raising her right hand, which still held the source of the metallic sound that had awakened her, Allyson examined the bloody kitchen knife Laurie had presented to her. She wondered about its significance, why Laurie hadn’t thrown it away as soon as they’d escaped the burning house. After a while, the answer dawned on her.

A source of fear transmuted into a totem of strength.

Special thanks to my editor, Ella Chappell at Titan Books, for her encouragement and support throughout the process, and for giving me the opportunity to write my first movie novelization. Also, at Titan Books, thanks to Valerie Gardner, Joanna Harwood, Helen Marie, Lukmon Ogunbadejo and Kiran Rihal.

Thanks to Malek Akkad, Bill Block, Jason Blum, John Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis, David Gordon Green, and Danny McBride at Miramax for bringing me aboard. And thanks to David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, and Jeff Fradley for the frightening and creepy screenplay! Of course, none of this would be possible without John Carpenter and Debra Hill, who gave us the terrific characters and situations from the original Halloween , the viewing of which has become a holiday tradition in our home.

For keeping me in the writing zone throughout, a note of audio thanks for Tangerine Dream’s Quantum Gate .

Finally, thanks to my family for their support and understanding while I burrowed ever deeper into the story.

John Passarella won the Horror Writers Association’s prestigious Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel for the coauthored Wither . Columbia Pictures purchased the feature film rights to Wither in a prepublication, preemptive bid.

John’s other novels include Wither’s Rain, Wither’s Legacy, Kindred Spirit, Shimmer and the original media tie-in novels Supernatural: Night Terror, Supernatural: Rite of Passage, Supernatural: Cold Fire, Supernatural: Joyride, Grimm: The Chopping Block, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Ghoul Trouble, Angel: Avatar , and Angel: Monolith . In January 2012 he released his first fiction collection, Exit Strategy & Others. Halloween is his fourteenth novel.

A member of the Horror Writers Association, International Thriller Writers and the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, John resides in southern New Jersey with his wife, children, and two dogs. As the owner of AuthorPromo.com, he is a web designer for many clients, primarily other authors.

John maintains his official author website at www.passarella.com, where he encourages readers to send him email at author@passarella.comand to subscribe to his free author newsletter for the latest information on his books and stories. To follow him on Twitter, see @JohnPassarella.

TITANBOOKS

Halloween – The Official Movie Novelization