The Battle has Won, but the War has Just Begun (Ichabod Crane)

Chapter 19

"Please hear me out Jeremy. I never wanted to abandon you. I wanted you keep you with me and raise you myself, all while telling you stories about how brave your father was to give his life to keep our land safe from the enemy. I had every intention of raising you, watching you grow, pick a wife and start a family of your own. I never wanted to be separated from you. Trust me Jeremy, I wanted to be there for you every step of the way. It hurts me to know that I will never get a chance like that again...especially with Winter roaming around," Katrina tried to explain.

"Don't you dare try and push this off on the only woman who has helped me through all my difficult times," Henry said.

"You fear what she will do, should she find out that you betrayed her. I'm here to protect you from Winter now. I may not be able to take her down on my own, but together you and I will be able to rid of her. Then we can try and have a normal life with your father. We can try and get everything that we lost all those years ago. I just need you to help me kill her," Katrina said.

"You won't do anything to kill my sister. If you both even think about it, I will kill you both," Abraham said.

"The horseman of death speaks the truth. I would be stupid to even think about killing the only woman who has helped me out during my time buried alive in a coffin," Henry said before walking away.

Winter made her way back to where Ichabod, Abbie and Jenny were waiting for her and Katrina's return together.

Winter took a deep breath before releasing it. I already know that they will ask me questions about Katrina's whereabouts. But if I tell them where she is, then they will only kill me, before I get the change to correct the wrongs that Katrina committed. I shouldn't be alive right now. Neither should Ichabod, Abraham and Katrina. We're going against nature. Nature is letting me know that she isn't pleased with the way things are right now. Once I successfully correct this, I will be able to rest peacefully. But Abraham doesn't need to know that I have my own little agenda going, which involves putting him back int he ground, as well as putting an end to him and the other horseman. I will keep them from raising the other two horsemen and bring death to earth, Winter thought to herself before walking into the vault.

"Well, it's about time you came back. What took you so long to return from your little walk? Even better question, where the hell is Katrina? The both of you left together. I find it kind of funny that only you come back all alone. Did you do something to Katrina, that we need to know about," Jenny asked.

"Katrina gave me the slip. As to where the hell she ran off to, I know that you find it hard to believe that I don't know where Katrina is, but I'm not Katrina's keeper. It is not my responsibility to keep track of her. She's a grown woman. She makes her own decisions. But I can clearly see from the look on your face that you don't believe a word that I say. The thing is I don't have to prove anything to you," Winter said before turning her attention to Abbie and Ichabod. "Do you two believe I'm telling you a lie?"

"No. Why would we assume that you are lying to us? You wouldn't have any reason to lie to us about what happened between you and Katrina. And I would understand that you wouldn't want to chase after Katrina after she had locked you away for practically 200 years in a deep slumber," Ichabod said.

"Look, I know you and Katrina aren't the best of friends. And we didn't expect you to want to go running after her. But did you at least see which direction that she ran in," Abbie asked.

"All I know is that she ran off. That's it. But if you don't want to believe me, that is your choice. I won't force you to do something that you don't want to do. But I know my truth. If the both of you are done wasting my time, I have better things to take care of than stand here and argue with the three of you," Winter said.

"Leftenant, Winter wouldn't have any reason to lie to us. I trust her. You can trust my word; I have known Winter for a while. Her brother and I were friends.

"Yeah, you were friends with her brother. That is until you betrayed her brother by running off and marrying Katrina, as well as having a child with her. Trust me, your history along with Katrina's and the Van Brunt family is quite interesting. Though historians seem to have been misinformed about what really happened to Winter. But when you're in the system, you usually have some time on your hands. And I managed to borrow some books on history," Jenny explained.

"You mean you stole them," Abbie corrected.

"If you want a history lesson, maybe I will give you one...once you give me reason to trust you," Winter snapped at Jenny.

Ichabod rushed over to Winter to try and keep her from doing something stupid. "Winter, why don't you and I go for a walk and talk in private? That way you don't feel on edge around the Leftenant and her sister."

"It's only the sister who is putting me on edge with her accusing me of being untruthful," Winter said while Ichabod gently grabbed hold of Winter's arm, leading her out of the vault.

Jenny watched as Ichabod escorted Winter out of the vault, feelings a nagging feeling deep within her being. Something doesn't feel right about what Winter Van Brunt is telling us. What could Winter Van Brunt be hiding from all of us, Jenny thought to herself before feeling Abbie smack her on the arm.

Jenny turned to glare at Abbie. "Why the hell did you smack me? What the hell did I do wrong?"

"You were being an ass by talking down to Winter. I already told you that if you want Winter to speak to you civilly, then you need to be civil with her. But you aren't even trying to play nice with her," Abbie explained.

"Oh please. Do forgive me if I find Winter Van Brunt to not be so trustworthy. She is the sister of the man who is known as the horseman of death. Yet here you are paling around with her like the two of you are long lost friends who have finally been reunited together after not seeing each other for many years. You used to have a hard time with trusting anyone. But when it comes to Winter, you treat her differently," Jenny snapped.

"I trust Winter, because she was the only one who put her life on the line to save me from purgatory. Why can't you be thankful that Winter did that for me," Abbie explained.

Ichabod walked Winter to his apartment that Abbie helped him get. Once they were inside the apartment, Ichabod started making an attempt to calm Winter down, knowing that she wouldn't answer any of his questions he had for her, if she was still angry and on edge.

"I know you are still uptight from having an intense conversation with Leftenant's sister. But I would like for you to calm down. Please, it would make things go much smoother," Ichabod said.

Winter gave Ichabod a stern look, knowing that she had a lot of questions for her. "I'm not dumb Ichabod. I know that you have more questions that you are wanting to ask. So, you might as well ask me, so we can get all of this out of the way already."

"What purpose do you play in all of this? Because Ms. Jenny Strongly believes that you are secretly helping your brother bring an end to the world," Ichabod stated.

"That woman is truly unbelievable. Does she honestly think that I would go and destroy the earth? It goes against everything that I stand for. I won't rest until everything is set right. I will make sure that Abraham is stopped and resting peacefully in the ground. That also goes for you, Katrina and I. We don't belong walking around in this time period. We all had our time to live. We should be resting now. Us existing in this era, it goes against nature. I'm sure Katrina has educated you on the ways of witches and how we are supposed to nature's children, who try to keep balance. Unfortunately, Katrina has disrupted the balance of nature," Winter began to explain.