Akayuki (Red Snow)--Michael's Past Part 1

Warning: The following contains sensuality. Reader discretion is advised.

Author's Note: While I write new chapters for the main story, I hope you enjoy this backstory with Michael and Lonnie. These two were fun to write. And Annie, too. Laurie is mentioned but doesn't appear. Sorry. 

Disclaimer: The following is a work of fan fiction. It is intended for entertainment purposes only. Any resemblance to actual persons living or deceased is purely coincidental.

~o~

Michael Myers walked to work with two shadows following him. One shadow belonged to him, the other, smaller shadow belonged to an eight-year-old boy from the village.

The boy’s name was Lonnie Elam, although Michael did not know him yet.

The village was Haddonfield, a small village that had not welcomed Michael home three years ago. Despite the glares he received daily from the villagers, he had met his wife Annie here, and it was here where he worked in his late mother’s tea house, ironically named Two Shadows.

Michael had painted the tea house last summer while he and Annie settled into married life and prepared to reopen the business. By autumn, Two Shadows’ freshly painted blue doors opened for the first time in ten years. Michael didn’t know anything about running a business, especially a tea house, but Annie assured him she knew about as much as he did.

“As long as you don’t burn the place down or kill any customers, we’ll be fine,” she told him on their first day. “We’ll learn as we go.”

Michael said nothing, although he continued to worry, especially as business was slow.

“We need a gimmick,” Annie announced one day. She pointed directly at him. “Go outside and scare some people.”

“Excuse me?” he asked, his deadpan voice icy cold.

“You’re The Boogeyman, aren’t you?” Annie asked him. “Go scare up some customers.”

Michael scowled and continued brewing tea. Coming to live with his younger sister here in Haddonfield had been a bad idea in the sense that all the rumors from his past seemed to awaken upon his return. He hadn’t wanted that.

But if he hadn’t returned to Haddonfield, he wouldn’t have reunited with his sister or met Annie, an interesting and, at times, exasperating young woman his sister’s age of twenty-two. 

“At least listen to my plan before you scowl at it,” the same exasperating woman said.

Michael grunted, which she took as a sign to continue.

“You scare them, they run in here, and I serve them tea and dango,” Annie explained. “The food and drinks are so good they completely forget you scared them in the first place. They leave and word gets out. ‘If you need to relax, visit Two Shadows Tea House.’ Everyone comes, we get rich, the end, we live happily ever after. What do you think?”

“I think…” You’re crazy and it will never work.

“Yeah?” Annie asked, putting her arms around him and cuddling up to him. “Go on.”

He bit back the moan of pleasure her body pressed against his caused him to feel.

“I think your idea needs work, but…”

“We should sleep on it first?” Annie finished. “I agree.”

Michael smiled at her. He had expected an argument.

Annie went on. “We’ll go home, make a baby, then we’ll sleep on it. Perfect plan.” She reached up and kissed him.

“Wait a minute,” Michael protested, once she released him. 

“What’s wrong? I said we would sleep on the idea,” Annie reminded him.

“You want to have a baby?” he asked her. 

“Don’t you?” she asked, cocking her head to the side and staring up at him. It was a familiar gesture. He frequently looked at her in a similar manner.

“I never thought about it,” he confessed, scratching his right temple.

“What’s there to think about? We’re married. It’s what married couples do—they make a home then fill it with babies.” Annie lowered her eyelids and gazed at him, licking her lips. “Don’t deny you don’t enjoy the bedroom portion of married life.”

“Someone might walk in and hear you, Annie.” Michael found the kitchen stifling hot despite the oven being off. 

“I have the Closed sign on the door,” she reassured him. She stepped up to him and they kissed until they were both out of breath. 

“Home?” she asked, tugging on his apron strings.

He nodded and allowed her to lead him out of the kitchen.

Three months later, business was no better but Annie was pregnant. Unfortunately, she could no longer work at the tea house. Severe morning sickness prevented her from leaving the house for the first two months. She was better now, thankfully, but the doctor told her to stay home and rest.

Michael, meanwhile, ran Two Shadows on his own.

Although, he thought as he opened the doors that morning and hung out the Open sign. I could use some help with the prep.

He looked down at his feet before entering the tea house. His second shadow stood behind him.

He frowned. How should I handle this?

He considered several options before settling on the simplest solution and facing the problem head-on.

“Come in,” he told his second shadow without looking back or waiting for a response.

The dining room of Two Leaves was empty for now so Michael led his second shadow to the nearest table for one and said, “Sit.”

He did not wait to see if the order would be obeyed. He headed to the kitchen, prepared a mug of warm green tea, and returned to find the fair-haired boy seated and waiting patiently.

“Why are you following me?” Michael asked him.

The boy lowered his head.

Michael kept his hand around the mug of tea he had placed on the table before the boy.

“Answer me.”

“I wanted to…” the boy mumbled.

“Stop mumbling,” Michael ordered.

“I wanted to find out if you were The Boogeyman!” the boy shouted.

Michael rolled his good eye, the right one. The left eye had been blinded three years ago and by his younger sister, no less.

Not this ridiculous Boogeyman rumor again.

“I am just a man,” Michael assured the boy.

The boy looked up at him.

“Really?”

Michael nodded.

“So…you can’t vanish and reappear somewhere?”

Michael shook his head. He could move fast, but not like the wraith this boy believed him to be.

“And you don’t eat dogs?”

Michael shook his head. He didn’t bother to explain why he had slaughtered and eaten a wild dog during his travels. The rumors would never stop if he didn’t deny everything.

“And you didn’t kill all those people during Halloween?”

“Drink your tea before it gets cold.”

Michael returned to the kitchen.