None of us could react fast enough when the first of us fell. I was completely petrified where I stood. My stomach dropped as I saw Mr. Crane’s body slump forward then hit the ground. I heard a head rolling down past me and knew I shouldn’t have looked, but I did. I almost passed out from shock when I saw the expression on his now-severed head. We screamed and panicked as the Horseman advanced toward the rest of us. None of us were able to muster enough courage to hold him off, so we kept running.
I didn’t think about anything else as Abraham Van Brunt took Katrina Van Tassel away from the scene of the carnage we had all just witnessed. I hadn’t noticed it at first, but I could feel his blood all over my face. It made me panic even more. Van Brunt lead us to where he thought the tree was. It was driven more by fear than courage at this point. I had no quarrels with that. I just needed to run away from the Horseman as fast as I could. He would surely be coming for me next, since I was the one who killed his horse.
We kept running through the wretched woods, exasperated from our extended flight, until we reached the edge of the tree line. In front of us stood the actual marshlands. There were pockets of water everywhere, making me wonder what was in there. Van Brunt and Katrina looked hesitant to cross forward. Even Lloyd was beginning to think twice.
“We need to cross!” I said, taking the first step across. Thankfully, nothing happened. I looked up and could see a tree hanging over the edge of a small cliff. It was more prominent than the others. “Look, it has to be over there!”
“Hage, that’s a mass grave site!” Lloyd cautioned me. I hadn’t realized that when Van Brunt explained that these places used to be battlefields. “You’ll incur the wrath of the fallen warriors. I don’t know about you, but I like to keep the number of spirits after us down to a minimum.”
“H-he’s right,” Katrina Van Tassel said, taking a step forward. Nothing had happened to her either. Abraham Van Brunt and Lloyd looked at each other, then advanced forward. They were very cautious when stepping through the marsh. I did what I could to lead them through the dry portions.
It wasn’t until I fell through a deceptive bush did I start to panic again. The water was cold in the night, freezing me up and slowing down my reaction time. I opened my eyes and want to scream. But no one can hear you scream underwater. There were bodies everywhere, most rotting. A corpse floated right past me with a blank expression on its face. I swear one of them was coming for me. I tried pulling myself up, but I didn’t know how to get up to the surface. I kept fighting my way up with no hope or promise of escape. The corpses were floating towards me and I didn’t want to be near them. I wanted to get away from it all.
A hand pulled me up, then another pair, and another. I flew up through the surface of the water and onto dry marsh. I coughed and gagged for air. Immediately, I felt chills cover my body. Lloyd, Abraham Van Brunt, and Katrina Van Tassel had all worked to pull me out. I was grateful, but I couldn’t show it now. Because a recurring nightmare had returned. He stood at the edge of the tree line and was looking a little hesitant like us. Maybe he had the same fears as we did. But he was undead. Why would he fear a mass grave of the deaths he was responsible for?
“Look, he’s afraid,” I said, pointing at the Headless Horseman.
Maybe I was right.
But I may have jinxed our good chances, because he began his approach toward us, just a lot more slowly. He was brandishing his axe, which still ran with the red blood of Ichabod Crane, and the head of his most recent victim in his other. He tossed the head at us, which landed right in front of me. Katrina Van Tassel screamed and ran toward the tree. Lloyd and I froze in complete fear. For all we knew, that could be us. Chances are, it was going to be us. Abraham Van Brunt was the bravest of us and took the initiative to toss the head into the water, away from our fearful sights.
