thexbabysitter

[thexbabysitter]

🎃 @piinkviscera liked for a starter

Laurie had witnessed a lot of strange and terrifying things since that fateful Halloween night, but Purge night had to be among the worst. The fact that it was legal just made it more sickening. She'd considered returning to Haddonfield for the night, but she'd seen firsthand that just because it looked like a safe, sleepy little town didn't mean that it was. It wasn't even just Michael. She'd seen the townspeople come together like vigilantes with pitchforks and torches to drive out perceived evil, and… no. She really didn't need more of that in her life.

She'd resigned herself to white-knuckling it in her apartment for the night. The windows and doors were reinforced with steel plating, and she had more weapons than she'd ever had against Michael, but Laurie didn't fool herself that it was completely safe. Nothing was completely safe, and nothing would keep out indefinitely someone who truly wanted to get in. She hadn't counted on herself being dumb enough to leave, but she should have. Laurie wasn't the kind of person who could ignore screams anymore. Instead, she found herself checking her weapons, unbarring the door, and running toward them, her biggest fear not that something would hurt her but that she would be too late to help.

[thexbabysitter]

"Maybe I can help. I've gotten pretty good at uncovering mysteries." Her smile came a little easier, the mood lightening briefly, but she didn't want to make too much light of what had happened here. People had died. It was no joking matter. Most mysteries, Laurie had discovered, didn't have straightforward solutions. Real life was too complicated for that. There were always loose threads, things that didn't add up, questions that would never be answered. Her best strategy for dealing with the uncertainties was to research, talk to people, collect as much information as she could find, and present it with as little bias as she could. What conclusions people drew from the facts were their own business.

"That's terrifying. What kind of minds dreams up a game like that, to make people want to hurt themselves?" She paused, realizing that was exactly the question that had led Jughead to start playing, and she made a soft sound of surprise. "Oh. I see why you started. I think I would have done the same if it were my friends. I would have wanted answers. That's so… insidious of the game, to pull people in like that."

Her head tilted thoughtfully, glad he was the one to bring it up. Something more. "Strange as it sounds, I understand. When you're in the middle of something like that… it feels almost otherworldly. All the natural rules of the world seem suspended." She'd witnessed it with Michael too, in the way he'd killed all her friends so quickly and so easily, without sounding any sort of alarm. In part, she thought it was because nobody expected something like that to happen, and evil took advantage of that. It preyed on those expectations and subverted them, and that gave it power. Power that, caught in the middle of it, looked greater than human.

"That's good. I hope your friends got justice." She didn't ask who it was. It was either a matter of public record and she could find out for herself, or it was a secret too big for him to tell. In either case, she would respect it. "In this case, it sounds intentional. Someone brought it back for a purpose. It's not unreasonable to think someone else could in the future, once people start to forget what happened-- or it turns into Riverdale's very own urban legend."

"Of everything that's happened here, it seems like that one has the fewest concrete answers," she explained. Unmasking a killer--usually--meant obvious conclusions. Jason's murder had been solved, the Black Hood had been unmasked, but Gryphons and Gargoyles was too widespread and nebulous for such a clear explanation. The other aspect of her interest in it, that it seemed to blend reality with the supernatural, she wasn't quite ready to admit. It reminded her of Michael, how he seemed almost superhumanly strong. But Jughead was taking her seriously right now, and she didn't want to end that by speculating on things that couldn't be real.

"So you had an insider's perspective, and a peek at the control room." She smiled, brow arching slightly in return. It didn't sound nerdy to Laurie at all. From what little she'd managed to uncover about it, it sounded horrifying, the kind of game she would have been too frightened to try if her friends had been playing. She quieted, hands folding in front of her while he settled into his story. He had a natural storyteller's flair for it. She almost felt like she could see it unfolding in front of her as he spoke.

"I'm so sorry," she said softly. "Were they friends of yours?" Laurie had never been a part of something like that, but she'd observed how easy it was for people to get caught up in their fictions. Haddonfield lost its mind any time they thought Michael might be returning. She'd seen crowds gather with makeshift weapons that were almost as terrifying as the boogeyman. She could only imagine how much worse it would be if someone were purposely channeling that energy to frighten people and hurt them.

"It's difficult to tell what's real and what isn't when you're in the middle of it. Do you know who was behind it all, even pulling the Gamemaster's strings?" Another little smile, soft and understanding. She didn't believe for a moment that it was Jughead using the game to manipulate people. They'd only just met, but with the way he spoke about it… it was far too personal to him.

[thexbabysitter]

Laurie wasn't surprised when her friends dumped Lindsey on her in addition to looking after Tommy. She didn't even mind. It was no more difficult to watch two kids than one, and they kept each other entertained. After the movie, she'd put them both to bed, and then she'd started to worry. They should have been back by now, and nobody was answering their phones.

She locked the door to the Doyles' house behind her and headed across the darkened street. Trick or treating time was long over, and the neighborhood looked deserted. It was even a little spooky, but she tried to push those thoughts away as she headed down the street. She'd freaked herself out enough already tonight with imaginary stalkers and Tommy's talk of the boogeyman.

She'd cut through the houses and reached the back yard when Annie suddenly appeared. Laurie's scream echoed hers, as much startled as she was frightened, and then she screamed again when the door flew open on a masked figure. "W-What?" No, this had to be a Halloween prank. That knife couldn't be real. Still, she didn't resist when Annie grabbed her wrist and tugged her back around the house, breaking into a run as they reached the street.

"What's going on? Who is that? Where are Bob and Lynda?" Annie was sobbing so hysterically that Laurie almost couldn't make the words out, but she gathered enough to understand that their friends were dead. If this was a prank, it wasn't a funny one, and Laurie might kill them herself for their insensitivity. She reached the Doyle's door first and slammed into it, scrambling in her pocket for the key.

@thexbabysitter

The blood was turning tacky as he rolled his shoulder, the stale smell of metal and earth filled the air around him. He felt thankful how quiet the house had become. The screams had stopped long enough for him to take stock of the carnage. Whoever these people were Michael found them to be little of a challenge, the jock had been an issue. He was the one that knocked Michael’s shoulder out of place, moving to the kitchen he pressed it against the door frame. A satisfying pop follow and a small groan echoed from behind the mask, the pain was brief.

Walking through the house Michael knew he was missing one more, a brunette girl. In a cheerleader outfit- out of the corner of his eye he saw movement. A blonde. Turning on his heel he moved toward the window to peer at her from the front yard, she was young. Like them. It was only a moment later the brunette surprised him jumping from the back porch into the yard, “Laurie!”

With that the hunt was on again, he wasn’t about to have a loose end. The coven would not be pleased. Hurrying toward the back door Michael opened it in time for the brunette to scream, “HIM!” A few large steps from the back door he lifted the knife above his shoulder, “Laurie run!”

[thexbabysitter]

She listened hard, her head tilted slightly while she strained to catch a sound. Was that the shuffle of a footstep, or just the quiet hush of the ever-present heater running? Stand there long enough and she'd be overcome by paranoia. She had to remind herself that it wasn't paranoia that had gotten her up in the first place. It was a feeling deep in her gut, the kind she'd learned not to ignore.

She had the sense that someone was standing just out of her range of vision behind the shelf. She'd taken a tentative step forward, lifting onto her tiptoes to try to peer between the rows of books, and then she checked herself. If she did happen to find someone down there, and they did happen to wish her harm--both huge assumptions, no matter what her instincts whispered--then she had nothing to fight them off with. Laurie had proven she could be creative in a pinch, but it was much, much better to be prepared.

Her footsteps were silent on the thin carpet as she moved back to her table, slipping the small pocket knife she kept in her bag into her pocket and picking up her umbrella. Admittedly, not the best weapons, but she didn't just carry around the real thing with her when nothing had even threatened her yet. She had no reason to believe there was anything real going on in this town yet anyway. Gripping the umbrella tightly, she stepped between the shelves and moved cautiously down the row. Her mind was playing out how it would go when she reached the end, how she would probably just startle some random innocent library patron, or maybe there would be no one there at all. She drew a breath, her heart fluttering when she turned the corner at the end.

muse: Laurie Strode (Halloween) limit: 18+ only please, mutuals and non-mutuals set: a library, any town open to: other horror muses, multifandom crossovers, OCs, whatever! triggers: canon-typical, nothing specific

When they asked Laurie what she wanted to be when she was a little girl, she'd never once imagined she would put podcaster or true crime investigator on her list, but to be fair, she hadn't known those things existed when she wrote down things like teacher or ballerina (a pipe dream that met a swift end when her first and only ballet class ended in tears). She liked the work she was doing though, giving people like her an avenue to tell their stories, and traveling the country made her feel safer than sitting in one place waiting for Michael to find her. And, hey, she got to visit a different library in practically every town she stayed in. If that wasn't the dream job, Laurie didn't know what was.

The podcast had risen naturally from researching her own experience and others like it. At first, she'd just wanted a way to organize it for herself and make it public in case it could help others, but as Final Girl got more listeners, it started trickling in a fair amount of money too. It helped pay for gas, food, and motels, anyway, and that was enough for now. The stories in this town were vague, and she didn't hold out a lot of hope for it. She'd come to talk with a forest ranger who agreed to meet with her about some suspicious attacks in town, and while she didn't get much out of the interview that hadn't been in the news, she was still dutifully recording her impressions in her notebook after he left. There probably wasn't enough here for a story, but Laurie was nothing if not meticulous.

Call it experience in having been stalked for one horrible Halloween, but she knew when she was being watched. The hair on the back of her neck prickled, although her pencil didn't waver in her note-taking. She could swear there was a shadow standing just on the edge of her peripheral vision, but when she looked, it was gone. Probably just another library patron, but… she didn't just sit around and wait for things to find her anymore. She set the pencil down and stood slowly, coming to stand at the edge of the rows of bookshelves. "Hello? Is someone there?" she called softly. The light buzzed and flickered overhead because of course it did.

[thexbabysitter]

Surprise flickered across her face as she watched a shadow pass over his. Laurie had witnessed all forms of darkness, enough to recognize it when she saw it, yet it had been this man and no others who had come to her aid. It just proved again what she already believed, that people didn't have to be ruled by their demons. "I didn't see anyone else stepping in," she admitted, glancing around as everyone settled back into what they’d been doing. It wasn’t a criticism, since Laurie still had her own optimistic streak, but it was true.

"You didn't start it." She gave his arm a gentle pat and took her hand back, reaching for a handful of napkins to dry herself off some. At least whatever he'd spilled on her wasn't sticky. "I'm okay. Are you? He didn't hurt you, did he?" She worried about the same, wondering if it was really over. Her aggressor didn't seem like the sort of person to let things go. She took the seat he pulled out for her, settling her bag by her feet. "No, I never saw him before tonight. Will you let me buy you a drink as thanks?"

open - michael - any connection welcome

The normally gentle giant had put down the lesson of the witches, sworn off the evil and rage they tried to bestow him with. The same gifts he had used to kill so many; their screams haunted every dream even as the years went on. An outsider looking in might even mistake him for a pacifist, just as the figure before them had- a fatal error in the wrong place.

Thankfully, the crowded bar had enough bodies between them to keep Michael at bay. The gaze he cast, however, spelt the violence he wanted to inflict. “Stay away from them,” or else had been implied well enough in his tone.

[thexbabysitter]

"Of everything that's happened here, it seems like that one has the fewest concrete answers," she explained. Unmasking a killer--usually--meant obvious conclusions. Jason's murder had been solved, the Black Hood had been unmasked, but Gryphons and Gargoyles was too widespread and nebulous for such a clear explanation. The other aspect of her interest in it, that it seemed to blend reality with the supernatural, she wasn't quite ready to admit. It reminded her of Michael, how he seemed almost superhumanly strong. But Jughead was taking her seriously right now, and she didn't want to end that by speculating on things that couldn't be real.

"So you had an insider's perspective, and a peek at the control room." She smiled, brow arching slightly in return. It didn't sound nerdy to Laurie at all. From what little she'd managed to uncover about it, it sounded horrifying, the kind of game she would have been too frightened to try if her friends had been playing. She quieted, hands folding in front of her while he settled into his story. He had a natural storyteller's flair for it. She almost felt like she could see it unfolding in front of her as he spoke.

"I'm so sorry," she said softly. "Were they friends of yours?" Laurie had never been a part of something like that, but she'd observed how easy it was for people to get caught up in their fictions. Haddonfield lost its mind any time they thought Michael might be returning. She'd seen crowds gather with makeshift weapons that were almost as terrifying as the boogeyman. She could only imagine how much worse it would be if someone were purposely channeling that energy to frighten people and hurt them.

"It's difficult to tell what's real and what isn't when you're in the middle of it. Do you know who was behind it all, even pulling the Gamemaster's strings?" Another little smile, soft and understanding. She didn't believe for a moment that it was Jughead using the game to manipulate people. They'd only just met, but with the way he spoke about it… it was far too personal to him.

She would. Of course she would. Laurie always did what she said she would do. She was the nice girl, the avid student. Even Michael hadn't been able to change that. She looked forward to looking up his stories later and having a "voice" to go with the face. There was nothing like reading their writing to slip into another person's head for a while.

"It never really stops being less surreal, does it? No matter how many things you go through." Her smile was small and full of understanding. Obviously, Halloween night stood out most vividly to her. She'd been able to combat some of that sense of unreality with research and facts, with putting her story into her own words, but parts of it would always feel dreamlike, not quite real.

"Really? That's perfect." She couldn't help brightening at the words, at the broad smile on his face. Not everyone appreciated her nosing around into their personal lives, and Laurie tried to back off and be respectful when that happened. She accepted that not everything was her business. She had a long list of questions she wanted to ask--Jason Blossom, the Black Hood, the Gargoyle King--but she considered carefully. These were sensitive topics and, admittedly, one of them called to her more than the others, the one with the least concrete answers, the one most shrouded in mystery even after it was over. "Okay. What can you tell me about Gryphons and Gargoyles?"

[thexbabysitter]

"I don't think that's how it works, but I get it." Laurie's smile was gentle. If nobody could understand exactly what she'd been through on Halloween, Nancy came closest. She sometimes thought the other girl had it worse. Laurie only had to worry about one night of the year, not every time she fell asleep. "Feel ready for the test?"

OPEN STARTER! [ nancy thompson ]

setting: after the events of the first movie, before the third. nancy is in college. could be set in the 80s or in present day.

"I'm fine, I'm just..." Tired. It was almost her permanent state of being. But how was she supposed to have a normal sleep schedule after...everything. She did her best and was honestly doing better, but still, nights were hard. "I stayed up all night cramming for the upcoming test. I'll go to bed early tonight to make up for it."

[thexbabysitter]

Despite years and experience separating Laurie from the mousy bookworm she'd been in high school, she still wasn't the sort of person who thrived in a bar atmosphere, for reasons just like this. Some people didn't know how to take no for an answer. The guy had been lowkey pestering her all night, and it finally culminated in a small scuffle and him spilling his drink all over her.

She hadn't expected a stranger to come to her rescue. There were bodies between them now and the harasser was walking away, disgruntled, but the air was still thick with potential violence. She laid a hand on his arm, her smile gentle, hoping to defuse the tension. "Thank you. That was kind of you to step in."

open - michael - any connection welcome

The normally gentle giant had put down the lesson of the witches, sworn off the evil and rage they tried to bestow him with. The same gifts he had used to kill so many; their screams haunted every dream even as the years went on. An outsider looking in might even mistake him for a pacifist, just as the figure before them had- a fatal error in the wrong place.

Thankfully, the crowded bar had enough bodies between them to keep Michael at bay. The gaze he cast, however, spelt the violence he wanted to inflict. “Stay away from them,” or else had been implied well enough in his tone.

[thexbabysitter]

@alwaysxinxtrouble

Her body ached from falling down the stairs. Her arm burned from the slash of the knife. Her mind was still reeling from the sight of all her friends' bodies upstairs. There had been no time to even try to come to terms with that, if such a thing was even possible. Somehow, the appearance of the masked boogeyman had made it both more and less real to her. More because Laurie grasped immediately the kind of danger she was in, that this was no dream or prank. Less because there was no time to process the loss while she was fighting for her life.

She whimpered softly at the pain in her leg as she forced herself to stand, hobbling into the living room. She tripped over the lamp and fell hard again, her mind screaming a warning as the figure pursued her down the stairs. She crawled to the kitchen, slamming and locking the door. She didn't realize it was already occupied. She backed away slowly, screaming when she hit another body. This one was warm and alive, and she whirled, eyes widening at the unfamiliar face. Was he here to help? How had he known where to go? She hadn't even had time to find a phone, let alone call the police.

"Please, he's here! We have to get out-- The… the--" Laurie couldn't quite bring herself to say the boogeyman out loud. It sounded outrageous. The boogeyman wasn't real. She'd assured Tommy Doyle of that many times tonight. Except, it seemed, he was real, and he was here. As if to punctuate that thought, she screamed again when the center of the kitchen door exploded as though it had been hit by a powerful force, the masked face appearing through the hole.

[thexbabysitter]

BETTY COOPER RIVERDALE | 2.06

[thexbabysitter]

Halloween night should have taught Laurie to keep her nose out of other people's business, but it seemed to have had the opposite effect. Being a shy wallflower hadn't saved her from Michael Meyers. She wasn't sure what had saved her, actually. Yes, she'd fought and run and tried to protect herself and the kids, but she didn't have any skills that her friends didn't have. They'd fought and run too, and they'd still died. She'd come to the conclusion that she was alive mostly due to luck and a little help at the right time.

Now, she was the one who went looking for the strange and unexplainable. She shouldn't have been poking around that near the Cunningham property. She may have accidentally even crossed over into it at some point without realizing. She certainly shouldn't have been alone. There were a lot of disappearances in the area. At first, she thought it was Michael back from the dead, finally come for her at last, but no, there were differences between him and this man. He was still frightening, and he might even still kill her at some point, but he wasn't her personal boogeyman.

She was too frightened to object when he bid her hang the laundry, and even though her hands shook a little, she made sure not to drop anything. She didn't want to give him any reason to be angry with her. Her heart beat faster when he lifted her onto the table, but she tried to make herself comfortable, as though she'd always meant to sit there. She was watching quietly, looking for anything that could help her. It was so unexpected to find him watching back that she smiled before she remembered how dire the circumstances were. Then again, a little kindness had never steered her wrong before.

"I'm Laurie. What's, um-- what's your name?"

open to anyone. your muse has been captured by abel and held at his family's farm. the only reason your muse isn't dead yet is because abel has a fascination with them. it can be they're planning an escape, or they've accepted that this is their life now. idk, i just need slasher romance.

he doesn't get nervous. a gigantic, hulking man like abel cunningham isn't supposed to get nervous. he has stabbed, and strangled, and slain many times before. and yet at this moment, his body is tense. it's because he knows they're watching him.

after they had finished up their chore of hanging the wet laundry out to dry on the clothesline, they had followed him to the shack where he worked. and of course he wasn't going to turn them away. he couldn't bring himself to say no to them for some reason. so he had picked them up in his big arms and set them down on top of the table. and every so often while he was slicing up meats, his eyes would slide over from behind his mask and look at them.

it's the first time the two of them have been alone together since he had trapped them in his arms and brought him back to the farm. no one dares enter his workplace, not even momma. abel's shack is the only place where either of them could have privacy. and only when his eyes meet theirs does abel quickly turn his head away to act like he wasn't just caught staring.

[thexbabysitter]

First a slasher, now a zombie apocalypse? Laurie would have been sure she was dreaming if this feeling wasn't so familiar to her. She'd been the unwilling star of a horror film before, and she knew this was all too real. The smell of blood and decay was thick in the air, and sounds of the groaning, clawing monsters outside too clear to be her imagination. She'd swung the bat without thinking when he came through the door. It was lucky he had quick reflexes-- too quick to be one of those things outside.

She leaned on the bat, slightly dazed while she watched him shoot a monster cleanly through the head. "George Romero… okay," she breathed. She'd been here before. Not this exact place, but close enough. Another survive the night scenario wasn't exactly what she had in mind, but she could do this. Board the windows. But with what? Her gaze flicked around the room, searching for inspiration. Anything could be a weapon. Laurie of all people knew this.

"Yes… okay. If that will stop them." She dashed for the hall closet and pulled out the toolbox, then started sweeping books onto the floor to free up the shelves, the closest thing she had to boards. Pulling one out, she fit it over the window and hammered it into place, keeping an eye out for more dead things trying to come through. "What… what's your name?"

“Sorry about that. I thought you were one of them.” (Leon/Laurie, or your choice! @thexbabysitter)

@thexbabysitter

"Fair assumption." Leon pulled the Silver Ghost handgun from the shoulder holster, inside of his lambskin coat, as leveled it at the shambling zombie that clawed at the window, and depressed the trigger, with a small hole being pierced by the high velocity, hollow jacketed round that the weapon fired, with a bark of fire and noise. The round struck the infected man in the center of the forehead, blowing the zombie's brainpain out over the porch of the house outside of the widow, as he saw more dark shapes shambling in.

"These guys were human at one point, and in various stages of decomposition. I'm the real deal though." He clicked the safety back in place, as he grabbed a nearby bookshelf, and tipped it over onto his side, as Laurie watched frightened. "It's like Night of the Living Dead. Head as best as you can, and anything else, it's your ass. Don't hesitate, you'd be doing them a favor, as they're doomed."

He counted the other approaching undead. "You got any nails, and a hammer? I'd start boarding up these windows as quick as you can. I'll try and hold them off." He pushes a couch to barricade the door.

[thexbabysitter]

She would. Of course she would. Laurie always did what she said she would do. She was the nice girl, the avid student. Even Michael hadn't been able to change that. She looked forward to looking up his stories later and having a "voice" to go with the face. There was nothing like reading their writing to slip into another person's head for a while.

"It never really stops being less surreal, does it? No matter how many things you go through." Her smile was small and full of understanding. Obviously, Halloween night stood out most vividly to her. She'd been able to combat some of that sense of unreality with research and facts, with putting her story into her own words, but parts of it would always feel dreamlike, not quite real.

"Really? That's perfect." She couldn't help brightening at the words, at the broad smile on his face. Not everyone appreciated her nosing around into their personal lives, and Laurie tried to back off and be respectful when that happened. She accepted that not everything was her business. She had a long list of questions she wanted to ask--Jason Blossom, the Black Hood, the Gargoyle King--but she considered carefully. These were sensitive topics and, admittedly, one of them called to her more than the others, the one with the least concrete answers, the one most shrouded in mystery even after it was over. "Okay. What can you tell me about Gryphons and Gargoyles?"

She couldn't help a little smile at his confidence. She'd always been impressed by it, a quality she didn't have in abundance despite everything she'd survived and accomplished. The first was just luck, and the second… hm. A lot of good therapy, maybe. "I'll look them up. I do love a good mystery. With the right writer, it can go hand in hand with paranormal, sometimes." It was a line Laurie was particularly interested in, in her own case and some others. Michael had seemed almost superhuman to her at times, and there were others that, from the right angle, looked slightly supernatural as well. She never confirmed any sort of belief on her podcast. She just presented the known facts and let people draw their own conclusions.

"You live in the right town for it, then. Riverdale has become a sort of living urban legend. The stories that come out of here are incredible, and that's just in the news. I can imagine it inspiring fiction for decades, especially to live through it…" She trailed off thoughtfully. Laurie knew all about how the story changed in the telling, how the people who were there couldn't always be counted on to tell the truest version of things. It was one of the reasons she'd been so determined to get her version of events out there. Not the only true version, perhaps. Everyone experienced things differently. But hers.

As recognition went, it wasn't the worst one. Being known for her podcast was far preferable to being known as Haddonfield's final girl, even if the two were inextricably linked. "I am," she admitted, a slightly rueful smile on her lips. "Thank you. I'm honored that you've listened to any at all, honestly. It's a better thing to be known for. And… I guess now I don't have to be close-lipped about why I'm here. Riverdale has a lot of stories."

[thexbabysitter]

Laurie felt as if she'd lived a dozen lifetimes in one Halloween night, and still, the nightmare wasn't over. She'd watched Michael Meyers die right in front of her--at least, he'd been shot out of a second story window, which had seemed pretty conclusive to her--and made it to the hospital, only for him to continue to terrorize her there. Was he chasing her? He certainly seemed to be. But if so, why had he chosen her? Was it because she'd already escaped him once? The questions swirled around her mind with no answers forthcoming, and no time to sit and ponder them.

"I'm Laurie Strode. And that was the Boogeyman." The one good thing about being trapped in a hospital was the abundance of medical supplies. Scared as she was, she didn't hesitate to pull a pack of gauze and some antiseptic from the nearest cart. She cleaned the wound as quickly and gently as she could, her eyes darting around, searching for any moving shadows. She wiped her hands when she'd finished, not quite managing a smile. "Of course." She'd landed wrong on her ankle early when she tried to go out the window, a slight limp in her step as she moved to the door, peering cautiously either way down the hallway. They needed a plan. She wasn't going to just sit around and wait for him to come back. "He'll be back. We need a way out of here."

@thexbabysitter Asked:

❛   hold   still.   this   might   sting   a   little.   ❜   ( Sidney/Laurie )

【❖】   ――――        Sidney   had   to   be   the   most   unluckiest   person   on   this   earth.   She   moved   half   cross   the   earth   to   leave   one   nightmare   behind   her   only   to   end   up   smack   in   the   middle   of   another.   Woodsboro   and   Haddonfield   were   not   as   different   as   she   had   hoped.   The   eerie   feeling   of   being   watched,   the   chilling   whispers   in   the   wind   —   it   was   all   hauntingly   familiar.   She   couldn't   help   but   feel   like   she   was   cursed.   Sidney   shivered,   a   chill   running   down   her   spine   as   she   realized   that   they   were   not   safe   here.   This   place   had   to   many   entry   points   to   even   think   about   it   being   safe   but   they   had   to   stop   her   arm   from   bleeding.   They   would   never   out   run   anything   leaving   a   trail   of   blood   behind   so   reluctantly   she   reached   out   her   arm   to   the   other.

❝   Who   the   hell   was   that   and   who   are   you   ?   ❞   History   had   taught   her   a   valuable   lesson   and   that   was   to   not   be   so   trusting   of   anyone.   She   seemed   to   know   more   about   what   was   happening   in   Haddonfield   than   Sidney   did,   and   that   made   her   both   suspicious   and   grateful   for   the   help.   Eyeing   the   other   cautiously,   her   mind   racing   with   questions   and   doubts.   But   in   that   moment,   as   the   female   carefully   tended   to   her   wound,   Sidney   sensed   a   genuine   kindness   in   her   eyes.   ❝   Thank   you,   ❞   Sidney   whispered,   her   voice   barely   above   a   breath.

[thexbabysitter]

⭒˚⭒ LAURIE STRODE ⭒˚⭒ has just turned to a new page in their story. They're a [ 23 ] year old cisfemale (she/her), and you might know them better as THE BABYSITTER from Halloween. They're currently working as a podcaster. They look a lot like ⭒˚⭒ LILI REINHART ⭒˚⭒ and come from a world of [ realism (+/-) ], but you'll know them best by their final girl, books are safer than people, investigating the supernatural, anything works as a weapon vibe. ⭒˚⭒

[thexbabysitter]

It was like one of those nightmares where the car was underwater or a tornado was dropping out of the sky. Laurie kept expecting to wake up gasping in her bed at any moment. Distantly, she realized this was her mind trying to protect her from everything she'd seen tonight. The chilling white mask, the gleaming knife, her friends' lifeless bodies streaked in gore.

They'd sent the kids across the street to get help and then run upstairs to distract the killer and hide. In hindsight, higher ground seemed like a bad idea. Unless they were willing to jump out a window, they'd effectively cornered themselves. She was giving serious consideration to the window idea as his heavy footsteps came up the stairs. Maybe they could climb down and get to safety?

Her heart lurched in her chest when Carrie left the closet, Laurie reaching for her hand and missing. "No," she breathed, afraid to climb out or speak louder and give her away. She couldn't stand to lose another friend. She stood slowly, careful not to make a sound, her gaze frantically searching the closet for a weapon. A wire hanger, maybe?

She clapped a hand over her own mouth to keep from making a sound at the noises of the bedroom, tears welling up and spilling down her cheeks. The silence was almost worse. She couldn't see well through the slatted closet doors. She grabbed the hanger and twisted it into a sharp point, slowly sliding the door open to see the bookshelf toppled over the masked man. Her breath went out in a sigh of relief as she stepped out, frantically scanning Carrie for injuries. "Is he… dead?"

@thexbabysitter inquired ; one Muse saves the other from a dangerous situation, only to end up in danger themselves

It must be some kind of miracle that Mamma even let her out of the house on Halloween, some kind of intervention from God to prevent this very moment from happening. There's a man with a knife spending the night chasing over teenagers half his size, somehow avoiding everyone who could be something of a fair fight.

Out of the two girls Carrie definitely appears to be the weaker one. Not only is she smaller but she's much more visibly anxious. Yet just ask the knife wielding killer is about to find where the both of them are hiding Carrie jumps out into plain sight, giving him no reason to keep searching

The abilities she's discovered she possesses are still so new and undiscovered that they can be as unreliable as they are uncontrollable. Not to mention they're something not another living soul has yet to know of or see. But if it means saving her friend it seems worth it.

Carrie backs herself up into the corner of the room opposite the closet Laurie is hiding in, back against the wall while she waits for him to pass the bookcase in the room on the way to attack her. The moment he does she summons all the strength she has to send it toppling over, pinning the man to the ground. Even after this she still approaches him like a small, scared child, only long enough to grab the knife from his hands before backing herself up into the same corner and looking up to see if Laurie had seen any of it.

[thexbabysitter]

She couldn't help a little smile at his confidence. She'd always been impressed by it, a quality she didn't have in abundance despite everything she'd survived and accomplished. The first was just luck, and the second… hm. A lot of good therapy, maybe. "I'll look them up. I do love a good mystery. With the right writer, it can go hand in hand with paranormal, sometimes." It was a line Laurie was particularly interested in, in her own case and some others. Michael had seemed almost superhuman to her at times, and there were others that, from the right angle, looked slightly supernatural as well. She never confirmed any sort of belief on her podcast. She just presented the known facts and let people draw their own conclusions.

"You live in the right town for it, then. Riverdale has become a sort of living urban legend. The stories that come out of here are incredible, and that's just in the news. I can imagine it inspiring fiction for decades, especially to live through it…" She trailed off thoughtfully. Laurie knew all about how the story changed in the telling, how the people who were there couldn't always be counted on to tell the truest version of things. It was one of the reasons she'd been so determined to get her version of events out there. Not the only true version, perhaps. Everyone experienced things differently. But hers.

As recognition went, it wasn't the worst one. Being known for her podcast was far preferable to being known as Haddonfield's final girl, even if the two were inextricably linked. "I am," she admitted, a slightly rueful smile on her lips. "Thank you. I'm honored that you've listened to any at all, honestly. It's a better thing to be known for. And… I guess now I don't have to be close-lipped about why I'm here. Riverdale has a lot of stories."

cont. from here

@rayofsunshinc

No, that wasn't recognition, not yet anyway. Laurie could never decide if it was better or worse if people knew right away or if she was stuck wondering when that realization would hit. If it was only about the podcast, that wouldn't have been so bad. She was proud of what she did there. But even with its growing popularity, the way most people knew her was still through Michael Myers. Whether he'd known what he was doing at the time or not, he'd linked their names and fates together forever.

"A writer. What do you like to write? Anything I would have heard of?" Her expression brightened, and she didn't have to feign enthusiasm for the topic. Writers were Laurie's people. They tended to be observers and introverts like her, although if his invitation was anything to go by, he didn't have any trouble talking to strangers. But then, she supposed it wouldn't look like she did either. Coaching herself out of her wallflower tendencies had been a years-long process, and it was still a challenge at times.

A slight hesitation before she answered. If he hadn't recognized her name, the town had a better chance of giving it away. It had made national headlines that Halloween. "A small town in Illinois. Haddonfield."