Last year, my OKRWA writing chapter held a fun contest where participants were challenged to write a 500 word story with a ‘monster’ as the romance hero. I was coordinator, so I couldn’t enter the contest, but of course, I couldn’t resist writing a story anyway. This is the last of the Halloween Monster Romance Posts. Happy Halloween!!
About the story…
I have always loved the Michael Myers Halloween movies. I saw my first one, when it was released in 1978, in Moore, Oklahoma with my still BFF, Paige Warren. It was a spooky night all around. I drove my parents’ station wagon (and of course, Michael stole and drove the hospital station wagon in the movie). After the movie, we were driving down 12th street (the local drag), and a girl stepped out onto the busy street and slowly walked across, without even looking around, like she was in a trance or something. We were freaked out, to say the least. Then, when I got home, my bratty younger brother hid in my dark room with his hand over my light switch and, when I went to flip the light on, I touched his hand and screamed. So, yeah, that’s a night I’ll never forget. 🙂 When my kids were growing up, we all watched the movies together, and they LOVED them. They were never prone to nightmares, and if they did have them, they didn’t mind, because, like me, they loved to be scared. As twisted as it sounds, my girls and I think Michael is sexy. So…it was great fun to put him in a romance story. Hope you enjoy…
Devil’s Eyes
Haddonfield, IL 1992, Halloween Night
Brisk October wind bit into Doctor Phoebe Loomis’s flesh beneath her thin jacket. Dry leaves skittered down the sidewalk, sounding like cracking bones.
In the aftermath of the murders, the darkened neighborhood was silent. Along the street, houses were adorned with witches, goblins, and grotesquely smiling jack-o-lanterns. One particularly creative individual had transformed his yard into a cemetery, complete with headstones and an open grave with a ‘corpse’ lying next to it.
Red and blue strobe lights painted the faces of the officers leading the killer from the house. Michael Myers, wearing charcoal-gray coveralls and a blood-sprinkled white mask, towered above the two men.
Her pulse skipped, and she took a deep breath to still her racing heart. What was wrong with her? How could she be attracted to a…monster? Tonight, he’d killed five teenagers who’d been partying in his childhood home—thrill seekers, fascinated by the legend of Michael Myers. He’d taken countless lives since his escape from Smith’s Grove Sanitarium in 1978, where he’d been incarcerated for fifteen years after he murdered his teen sister, Judith, on Halloween—at six years old.
After her uncle’s death last year, Phoebe took over his psychiatry practice. Daily, she’d devoured Michael’s file. Yes, Michael had committed atrocities. But atrocities had been committed against him too. A relative told of how Judith abused him. All these years, he’d been killing his sister over and over. His tormented soul cried out to Phoebe. She couldn’t explain it any more than she could explain sunrises. They simply were.
Tomorrow, she would meet with a man who murdered without conscience. And tonight, like many others, she would dream of his touch, his kiss…
She grimaced. If the authorities knew of her twisted fascination with Michael Myers, not only would they not let her near him, they’d lock her up as well.
****
The interrogation room door opened and Phoebe snapped her head up. Michael—sans mask, wearing an orange jumpsuit, hands and feet shackled—stepped inside. His eyes—her uncle called them Devil’s eyes—were black as a midnight sky. But unlike her uncle, she saw more than a soulless killing machine in their depths.
Michael eyed her warily and dropped into a chair. He was handsomer than she expected. Dark, tousled hair and, other than a jagged scar running along his rugged jawline, he was…beautiful
She offered a tentative smile. “I’m Sam Loomis’ niece, Phoebe.”
He rested his shackled hands on the tabletop. His dark gaze, so intent it stole her breath, locked onto her face. Tingles skated over her skin and she glanced away.
When his touch landed on her hand, she jerked her head up. Michael’s firm lips had softened—not quite a smile, but something…pleasant.
“Phoebe…” His gravelly voice sent shivers along her flesh. “I’ll tell you my story.” Relief surfaced in his ebony eyes. “Then maybe, I’ll find peace.”
She clasped her fingers around his and nodded, smiling through tears. “I’m here for you. As long as you need me.”
My Paranormal Romance, Soul Seducer:
Blurb:
She spent her entire life fighting death. Now she’s falling in love with him
As a nurse, Audra Grayson devotes her life to healing others. She realizes death is inevitable, but struggles every day to help her patients combat it. When she has a near-death experience of her own, she inadvertently opens a portal between the world of the living and the dead. Two Grim Reapers step through—Gaylen, bent on vengeance, determined to bring death to the innocent, even when it isn’t their time. And Dimitri—sexy and deadly, even though he’s just ‘doing his job.’ When Gaylen targets Audra’s patients, then her loved ones, she’ll have to conquer her fears to defeat him. But she can’t as easily conquer her feelings for Dimitri—she’s falling in love with him, and there’s no future with a man who exists in a world beyond the grave.
Excerpt:
Sensing movement behind her, Audra whirled. In the shadowed corner of the room, she could make out the figure of a man, although she couldn’t distinguish his features.
Visiting hours weren’t until ten a.m. And even then, only family members were allowed in this wing of the ICU. Audra had met each of Ms. Chapman’s relatives, and this man wasn’t one of them. She could tell by his body type and height. The only male in Ms. Chapman’s immediate family was her son, and he was short and stocky.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice hushed. “You can’t be in here.”
He looked behind him, then back at her. “You can see me?”
She frowned in puzzlement. “Of course.”
“You saw me that night. Both those nights.”
Her frown deepened. “What nights?”
He moved from the gloom, drawing closer. Her instinct was to back away, but she forced herself to remain in place.
As he left the shadows behind, his features emerged, and part of her brain recognized him, but she wouldn’t let the terrifying thought solidify.
He wore faded jeans and a form-fitting black T-shirt. His pectoral muscles and biceps would rival a male model’s. They were tight and well-defined, not overly bulky like those of steroid-enhanced body builders.
Reluctantly, her mind acknowledged she’d seen him before. He’d been part of her hallucinations. Her worst nightmares were becoming a reality.
Somehow not as frightened as she should have been, she stared into his icicle blue eyes as he continued to move slowly toward her. She waited, holding her breath in expectation.
Why did she feel this tingly sense of excitement? This glimmer of anxiousness mixed with fear? Why did she feel like she might explode with anticipation?
He halted a couple of steps in front of her and lifted his hand, brushing it along the scar on her cheekbone, causing a shudder in the pit of her stomach. A current moved in the air, like a burst of electricity.
“The first time was the night you got this.” His words were a whisper along her skin, as was his touch…almost as if his caress was the hint of a sensation, but not actual contact. Her eyes drifted shut, and she swayed toward him. Her pulse raced, her skin tightening. She swallowed back a moan. She wasn’t even dismayed at her response to his nearness. It felt so right…so deliciously right. One slight move forward, and she could touch him, press her yearning body against his chest. Biting her lower lip, she just barely held back from giving in to the urge.
Softly, she murmured, “That night—I—you…” The only words she could form were incoherent drivel. Her heart pounded, her belly clenching with the strangest feeling she’d ever had. She lifted her lashes, staring up at him, wanting to lose herself in his glittering blue gaze. Wanting to feel his hands on her body…his full, sensual lips on hers. Wanting to be swept away in whatever madness this was. It felt so strange, yet at the same time, exhilarating, compelling, irresistible…dangerous.
Yes, dangerous. Gulping in a breath, she stepped back. His touch fell away, breaking the strange hold he had on her.
“You! It was you there that night. In the alley…” Her breath came in short gasps as the odd desire was replaced by fear. “Then again, at the hospital.” She shot her gaze around the room. “Where’s the other one? The blond guy? Who the hell are you?”
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Author Alicia Dean 