The Town That Changed Everything (Ichabod X Reader)

The Horseman

The next day, Y/N, Ichabod and Katrina went to the old Van Tassel house with their horses. It wasn't far from the new one. When they got there, Ichabod got off his horse. He gave Y/N a hand and she got off the horse. They stood there for five whole seconds, looking deeply into each other's eyes and smiling at each other, completely forgetting about the fact that Katrina was there. When they finally realised, they looked away from each other. Y/N saw Katrina smiling at them in a "Oh my god they are so cute!" way. That made Y/N smile aswell. Kinda made her beilieve that she had Ichabod all to herself. Ichabod then gave Katrina a hand since she was wearing a long dress.

"These are strange. The markings, what are they?" Asked Katrina curiously as she was holding Ichabod's hands. "I've had them ever since I can remember." Said Ichabod and looked to his right, hoping to see Y/N, but she wasn't there. She was already walking into the house.

Ichabod gave Katrina a forced smile and started walking towards the house. Katrina, of course, followed him. When he walked into the house, he stood right next to Y/N and put his arm around her shoulders. The two of them often did that when they wanted to say sorry or to comfort each other without actually saying anything. Now, it was a sorry. He felt bad about the previous night. He wasn't sure what he had done, or what was going on inside Y/N's head, but he had noticed that she was hurting.

Katrina was just walking around, looking at the scene and rooting for their relationship.

"This was my first drawing school. Oh look, the archer carved back here." Said Katrina, wanting to make things less awkward. She then took a stick and drew something in the sand.

When Ichabod saw what she was drawing, Y/N could see that something was up with him. He was acting a bit strange. "Are you alright?" She asked. Ichabod knew that his lies never worked with Y/N, but he still tied. "Yes, thank you. Just a uh...I felt dizzy for a moment." He mumbled while looking at Y/N nervously, hoping that his lie had worked. Katrina looked at him with worry on her face, while Y/N looked at him with worry and disbelief.

"Well, you can sit down somewhere if you want to." Said Katrina, still worried. "No, I am fine now. It was just...Momentarily." Answered Ichabod and looked over at Y/N, knowing the lie once again didn't work out.

"Look, a cardinal. My favourite. I would love to have one, but I don't have the heart to cage it..." Said Katrina with a smile while looking at a bird that was resting on a branch of a tree. "Well, then...I've got something for you." Said Y/N and pulled the optical illusion (I honestly have no idea what it's called but I hope y'all know what I'm talking about.) and showed it to her. "You can do magic! Teach me!" Said Katrina. "It is no magic. It is something we call optics. When two pictures make one picture during the spinning." Explained Y/N with a smile.

The three of them talked for a while and then went back to the new Van Tassel house.

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That day, an hour or so before getting dark outside, Y/N and Ichabod decided to go on a small walk and talk about the murders and all sorts of stuff. When they walked out of the house, however, they saw the four old men arguing inside, but they didn't think much of it.

After half an hour of walking, Y/N stopped. "What's the matter? Is everything alright?" Asked Ichabod with a not so visible, but obvious worry on his face. "Yeah, my mind just took a turn to a totally different thing." Answered Y/N. "What is it?"

"Well, two things. The first one is a thought that I have been keeping for a couple of hours now." Said Y/N. Ichabod looked confused. "When we were at the old house and you said that you felt dizzy. I know it was a lie. I know you way too well to believe that. So, if you don't mind me asking, what happened?"

"Oh, that...Well, I didn't want to tell you in front of Katrina because it kinda has something to do with her." Started explaining Ichabod. "When she drew that. You saw what she drew. Well, yesterday, when I fainted, I had a dream. I dreamed of something that has happened in the past but I've forgotten about it. My mom was in the dream. She drew the exact same thing that Katrina drew. Do you think that it is somehow connected?"

"Oh. Well, it could be a coincidence, but it's still a bit creepy." Replied Y/N. She wanted to continue, but Ichabod started speaking before her. "I don't know, I think she was also...It doesn't really matter. But you said there was something else on your mind. What is it?" He said.

"Well, the whole...Headless Horseman thing. You know I don't believe in that type of stuff but it is honestly creeping me out. This whole place is creeping me out. Do you think that there is something...Like, do you think that everything that they had been saying is actually true?" Said Y/N with a bit of a shaky voice. "No, I do not think any of that exists. Don't worry about it, Y/N." Said Ichabod with a comforting voice.

As they were walking, they both heard something. They looked at the direction of the sound and saw Philipse. He looked like he was in a hurry.

"What are you running from, Magistrate Philipse?" Asked Ichabod. "Of powers which there is no defence." Answered Philipse. "I um...How did you know that the Widdow Winship was expecting a child, by the way?" Asked Y/N curiously.

"She told me." Answered Philipse coldly. "Then I assume you are the father?" Said Ichabod. "I am not the father."

"Well, did she tell you the name of the child's father?" Asked Ichabod, trying to get more information out of him. "Yes, she did. She came to me for advice as town magistrate. To protect the rights of her child."

"Do you believe the father killed her?" Asked Y/N. "The Horseman killed her!" Said Philipse. "What is this thing?" Asked Y/N, trying to be as respectful as they could towards his beliefs even though she had had enough of them and grabbed Philipse's necklace which had something that looked like a cross. "It is my talisman, it protects me from the Horseman." Answered Philipse and grabbed it from Y/Ns hand. "How many times do we have to tell you...There is no Horseman. There never was a horseman, there never will be a horseman." Said Ichabod, pissed off at this point. "Now tell us the name of the..." Something cut him off. It was Y/N, tapping him on the shoulder while looking around the place. It had all gone foggy and cold. Even the sheep looked scared. Suddenly they heard galloping. A few seconds later, a person with a sword riding a horse came into view. There was one small problem. Apart from the sword, of course. The person didn't have a head. Suddenly he started going towards them.

Y/N and Ichabod grabbed each other's hands and fell backwards as the Horseman got near them. Philipse tried to run but he unfortunately got his head chopped off. Y/N and Ichabod were looking at the scene shocked while still holding each other's hands tightly and sitting on the ground. As the head got chopped off, it travelled towards them. They tried to avoid it since they knew that the Horseman was gonna come back for it, but it ended up right between Ichabod's legs. They were both shocked and frozen, so they didn't move. They just stared at the head for a second or two and then looked back at the Horseman.

He turned his horse around, the horse, once again, started galloping towards them, the Horseman collected the head that was still between Ichabod's legs with his sword and the horse galloped away. However, just as the horseman collected the head, Ichabod fainted. Y/N shook him, trying to wake him up, but it didn't work. She felt like she was also gonna faint, but she got up and ran towards the Van Tassel house. It only took her two minutes to get there since she was wearing comfortable clothes.

When she got there, she started banging on the door, and Sarah, the servant girl opened it. "Hello. How are you? I hope well. Anyway, I need Baltus and the others. The Horseman killed again. He murdered Magistrate Philipse right in front of me and Ichabod. Please tell them that. Oh, also, tell them that Ichabod's fainted again. It was a bit of a shock for him..." Explained Y/N with a shaky voice. She was also out of breath. Sarah then ran into the house and told Baltus and the others the exact same thing Y/N had told her. They quickly went to the place Philipse and Ichabod were. "I tried to wake him up. It didn't quite work..." Mumbled Y/N. "No worries, we'll carry him back home." Explained one of the people there. They then picked up both Ichabod and Philipse and went back to the Van Tassel house.