The Secret of Sleepy Hollow

by Andi Marquette

  And then the horseman exploded out of the woods on the other side of the road, scattering the crowd.

  Katie said something, but Abby couldn’t hear her over the shouting from the crowd as the horseman beelined for the bypass, the horse panting loud enough to hear. The guys behind them surged forward and Katie’s hand slipped out of Abby’s as they were separated. Abby stood now in the middle of the road as the horseman approached. She backed up, thinking he was going to need room to get around her but instead he turned down the bypass again. Several people in the crowd followed, cheering, but Abby remained in the road. Crowds made her nervous.

  “Abby.” Katie’s voice, right behind her. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. That was crazy.” Abby turned toward her.

  “And a little dangerous. Not nearly as good as some of the others who ride through the forest. Whoever that is better hope I don’t catch him.”

  Spectators were resuming positions along the side of the road after the earlier excitement. Somebody bumped into her. “Sorry,” he said.

  Abby pressed closer to Katie.

  “Are you ready to leave?” Katie asked, concern in her voice.

  “No. I’m just not a fan of crowds.”

  “This way.” Katie guided her until they came to a path that jagged to the left, the same one they’d walked to a couple nights ago. Abby followed Katie onto the path, keeping her eye on the flashlight beam. A few people passed and exchanged greetings, but it was much less crowded here than on the main road through the glen.

  Katie slowed and kept her flashlight trained on the ground. “This’ll meet up with another path that’ll take us to the one we came in on. Most people stick to the main road during the ride because it’s easier. The horseman will be riding the periphery now, which is why everybody’s headed out.”

  “I can see how people manufacture stories, even if the horseman hasn’t been a real ghost all these years.” Abby took her knit hat out of one of her pockets and put it on. She put her hands into the pockets of her fleece.

  “It is pretty convincing.”

  “And imagine it’s a night like tonight. No electricity, so everything’s black. The only light you have might be a torch or a lantern. And here comes this dark thing out of the woods—that’s enough for a legend.”

  Cheers floated on the breeze. Abby shivered.

  “He’s riding the periphery now,” Katie said.

  “Sounds like it.”

  Voices sounded behind them and they stood aside for a group of young people clearly trying to get out of the glen. Their flashlight beams bobbed in the dark. Abby glanced behind them but saw nobody else.

  “This place clears out fast, for the number of people that were here,” Abby said.

  “They’ll try to catch more sightings on the periphery and then go back to town for more festival stuff. Lots of businesses downtown stay open until midnight.”

  More cheers, this time from a different direction, and farther away.

  “It’s easier for him to ride fast out there than it is in the glen. Not so many trees.”

  “Which means Katrina was an outstanding horsewoman, to ride through here back then,” Abby said.

  “Speaking of which, I’m really liking the idea that Ichabod was a woman.”

  “It’s a great idea. And it makes sense, since Katrina’s descriptions of him talk about how he’s ‘delicate of feature’. Plus, he was all about teaching women to read. Maybe he went undercover so he could talk like that without facing the kind of sanctions that women had to deal with then.”

  “So we might have Ichabod and Katrina figured out. We still don’t have Elizabeth figured out though,” Katie said. “What’s her role in this, besides being Katrina’s other lover?”

  “I don’t know. Still thinking about that.” And where did Elizabeth come from? It was like Katrina flipped a switch in her correspondence, and Elizabeth just appeared.

  “How long are you in town?” Katie asked, breaking Abby’s train of thought.

  “I’m heading back Tuesday morning. You?”

  “Same.” Katie didn’t say anything else for a few moments. “Do you think you’ll have all the material you need?”

  “No. I’m planning on coming back.”

  “Let me know when you do. I’ll see if I can get here, too, and we can theorize some more.”

  “We can do that anyway. There’re these things called phones. And this other thing called the Internet,” Abby teased, trying not to sound overeager.

  “Yeah, but it’s more fun in person.” She stopped and Abby did, too. “I’ve been having a great time hanging out with you,” Katie said, and though the flashlight was pointed at the ground, there was enough of a glow from it that Abby could see Katie’s face.

  “Me, too. Hanging out with you, I mean. Not hanging out with myself. I do that all the time,” she finished, wincing inwardly because it sounded dorky.

  Katie smiled and the air seemed to spark between them. So maybe this wasn’t a friend zone? Katie took Abby’s hand again and pulled her a little closer. Oh, no. Definitely not a friend zone. Abby’s heartbeat sped up and delightful chills raced up her back as Katie leaned in.

  And then the pounding of hoofbeats sounded, not more than a few dozen feet away.

  Abby turned to look back down the path. A huge dark horse was fast approaching. She instinctively grabbed Katie’s arm and pulled her out of the way. The horse barreled past—the only sound, its hooves. Abby caught a glimpse of the headless rider and what might’ve been a sword at the rider’s side and maybe the glint of—brass? Buttons?—and then the shape seemed to meld with the darkness that pooled beneath the trees on either side of the path.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Katie yelled after the rider. “It’s damn dangerous to pull crap like that.”

  Abby stared in the direction the rider had gone. She listened, but no longer heard hoofbeats. Instead, she heard the distant cheering of the crowd. “Something’s not right,” she said.

  “Definitely not. This year’s rider is an asshole.” Katie started walking again, and Abby silently cursed the horseman for interrupting a really hot moment. But something was wrong.

  She felt the pounding through her shoes before she heard it, like in her dream. “Katie,” she said. “Get off the path.” She grabbed her hand and pulled her again into the forest.

  “Shit,” Katie yelled as the horseman galloped past, headed in the opposite direction he had gone the first time. “What the hell is he doing? And why isn’t he on the periphery?”

  Abby heard more cheers in the distance. “I think the horseman is on the periphery. This is another one.”

  Katie was quiet for a few moments until the distant cheering subsided and then picked up again. “Two horsemen? What the hell is that about?”

  “Has it happened before? Maybe two ride every once in a while to cover more ground.”

  “I don’t know. I guess I never thought about it,” Katie said as she took Abby back onto the path and they resumed walking, though their pace was faster now. “Either way, I still say this one is an asshole.”

  Katie took Abby’s hand again, which was more comforting at that moment than arousing. Abby kept glancing over her shoulder, though it made her stumble a couple of times. She was shivering, but it wasn’t because she was cold.

  Again, Abby felt hoofbeats before she heard them, and every hair on the back of her neck stood straight out. “Katie,” she said, urgent. She stopped and stared behind her. A shape in the darkness down the path seemed to morph into a horse and rider, approaching fast. Really fast.

  “Katie,” Abby yelled. “Get down.” She threw herself against Katie and they both hit the ground, Abby on top. She felt something move above her and she opened her eyes, as a dark shape sailed over them to land without a sound. As it moved away, though, she heard
hoofbeats.

  “You dick,” Katie yelled after him, still underneath Abby, who scrambled to her feet.

  “Are you okay?” Abby asked.

  “Just pissed. You?”

  “Pissed and scared.” Abby helped her up and they both stood still, listening. More cheering from somewhere near where they had parked, Abby guessed from the sounds. But she couldn’t be sure.

  “Anything?” Abby asked after a while.

  “No. That asshole had better be gone.”

  They walked in silence, Abby grateful for the wan light from the finally risen moon that found its way to the path. She refused to glance over her shoulder, even though she was sure something was behind them. She tripped on what was probably a tree root, but Katie caught her.

  “Okay?” Katie asked.

  “Yeah. Just freaked out.”

  “Me, too. But I’m still really pissed and that douche better hope that I don’t ever find out who the hell he is.”

  “I’m right there with you.” Abby heard cheers in the distance and that somehow made her feel a little better. She looked around, the moonlight both helping and hindering, because it caused weird shadows that seemed to move.

  “Anything?” Katie asked.

  “Nothing behind us.”

  “Good. Nothing in front, either. And we’re almost to the path we took to get in here.”

  “That makes me really happy.”

  “Same here.”

  And though the path had narrowed and Abby had to walk just behind, Katie took her hand and stayed close. Abby heard laughter in the woods on both sides and saw flashlight beams. They also caught up to a group of three people on the same path, two women and a man.

  “Hey,” the man said. “Fun night in the glen.”

  “Yeah,” Katie’s response sounded forced.

  “Great rider this year,” one of the women added.

  Abby squeezed Katie’s hand and fought an urge to laugh. If she started, she probably wouldn’t stop. “Definitely,” she said as Katie pulled her past them.

  When they arrived at the SUV, Abby climbed in and sank gratefully into the seat. She took her hat off and stuffed it into one of her jacket pockets.

  Katie closed her door and started the engine. “I’m freezing,” she said as she turned the heat on.

  Cool air blew onto Abby and she closed the vents in the dashboard closest to her.

  “It’ll warm up in a minute.” Katie didn’t pull back onto the road and that was fine with Abby, since there were cars merging onto it from both sides, moving very slowly around groups of people.

  “Okay, so, what the hell happened out there?” Katie asked after a while.

  Abby opened the vents because she felt heat on her legs. “Two riders. And according to my scientific calculations, one is clearly a dick.”

  Katie laughed, and it sounded relieved. “Clearly.”

  “I’m taking a cautious and scientific approach about this topic.”

  “And I respect that.”

  “The one who was a dick had a sword. The other didn’t.” Abby leaned forward and put one hand over the vent in the dashboard near the window. “Another alternative is that we might just have seen the ghost of a Hessian soldier over two hundred years old. However, I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

  “Me, either. So chances are it was a very human asshole.”

  Abby placed her other hand over the vent. “I’d consider the possibility that I might not have seen what I thought I saw. My brain might have manufactured something extra scary, given the circumstances.”

  “True. The brain manufactures all kinds of things.” Katie slowed to a near-crawl behind another vehicle that was trying to get around a group of pedestrians. “And we have been kind of obsessing over this story for the past few days.”

  “Speak for yourself. I’ve been completely obsessing.”

  Katie laughed.

  “I even had a couple of weird dreams.”

  “Oh? Do tell.”

  Abby did, and when she finished, she felt less freaked out by what had happened.

  “So both Katrina and the rider showed up in your dreams.” Katie was finally able to speed up, though they hadn’t made it to the paved road yet.

  “And Katrina showed up once as the rider. But she was herself, and not in disguise.”

  “Interesting, that you dreamed about Katrina riding a horse,” Katie said. “Especially if she did play the horseman that night Ichabod disappeared.”

  “It’s kind of weird. Maybe it was an idea in my subconscious that I hadn’t accessed yet.” Abby put her hands in her jacket pockets, more to keep them to herself than that they were cold. The vehicle had warmed up, but she’d almost taken Katie’s hand while she was telling her about the dreams, and she wasn’t sure how that would go over, now that they were in this different context.

  A driver flashed his lights, indicating that she could pull in front of him. Katie opened her window and waved at him then closed it. “Brr,” she said. Her phone rang and she pulled it out of the inside pocket of her jacket. “It’s Lu.”

  Abby nodded and stared out the window as Katie talked. She thought about how she almost kissed Katie—just like an asshole headless horseman, to interrupt that. She bit back a laugh.

  “Lu wants to know if we want to come by for a bit,” Katie said to her. “She’s having some people over. Hot drinks. Snacks,” she added, coaxing.

  “I’m in.” It would probably help put the evening into perspective, though being pissed at whoever it was for ruining a nice moment helped wash the creepy out, too.

  “Cool.” Katie resumed talking to Lu and Abby settled back, the warmth from the heater vents making her a little sleepy. By the time they got to Lu’s—a historic bungalow with a wide, covered porch—she was even more relaxed, and the evening’s events sat a little easier in the back of her mind. Maybe they’d fade even more after a party. Might as well try. She followed Katie inside.

  GHOSTS

  “Two riders?” Lu looked at Katie then Abby. “Are you sure?”

  “Well, the evidence is anecdotal.” Katie flashed a smile at Abby. “But we heard cheering from the periphery of the glen while we were dealing with the dick in the glen.”

  “And the first rider didn’t have a sword. The second that was in the glen with us did,” Abby added. She sipped her wine.

  The three of them had ended up in camp chairs in the back yard next to Lu’s outdoor fire pit. The remaining logs glowed and one popped and sent a shower of sparks into the air. The heat radiated off Abby’s legs, and this setting made the events in the glen seem far away. She was so relaxed that she might fall asleep out here.

  “That’s very strange.” Lu stretched her hands to the fire. “But I suppose it’s probably happened over the years.”

  “Whoever it was, he’d better hope I don’t find out who he is. You should have seen him, racing up and down on a horse. The damn path was barely wide enough for two people to stand next to each other.” Katie took a swallow from her beer bottle.

  “There’s always a chance of something going wrong, but that sounds more reckless than it needed to be,” Lu said.

  “Exactly. What if we’d had a kid with us or something? Or somebody had a ninety-year-old out there?”

  Lu laughed. “Well, I don’t think a ninety-year-old is going to be traipsing around the glen like that at night. But thank you for your concern for children and senior citizens.”

  Abby smiled. “So if you have some kind of grapevine to the secret horseman society, Lu, tell them we’re trying to save children and senior citizens from practical jokers who act like assholes in the glen during the annual festival.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” she said, and it sounded like she wasn’t kidding. She stood. “Do either of you want something else to drink?”r />
  Katie held her bottle up in the light from the fire pit, inspecting it. “No. I’m good.”

  “I’m fine,” Abby said. “I still have half a glass.”

  “All right. Put another log on if you want, Katie.” Lu went back inside.

  Light spilled through the windows onto the back porch, which looked like someone had added it on in the last few years. Like the front porch, it was covered, and it held a wrought iron table and chairs.

  “This is a great house,” Abby said as she turned her gaze back to Katie. And she’d been right about a historic bungalow as the type of house Lu would live in.

  “Yeah. Always feels good here. Speaking of, how are you doing?”

  “Better. And you?”

  “Same. I feel kind of bad that it happened, though. I hope it didn’t scar you for life.”

  Abby laughed. “Not even close.”

  “So does that mean that you’ll maybe want to go again at some point?”

  “I’ll need a local guide.” Abby stretched her legs out.

  “I know someone who is really interested in that position.”

  “Then I think we can work something out.” She looked over at Katie, and she thought about the moment they’d shared in the glen, and she wished she had managed to kiss her. Then again, maybe she was glad they hadn’t. Maybe the asshole had done them a favor, because she wouldn’t have been able to savor the aftermath of a kiss with Katie with the horseman galloping up and down that path. She really hoped they’d have another chance.

  “So—” Katie started.

  “Did either of you want some hot chocolate?” Lu called from the back door.

  “No, thanks,” both Katie and Abby said at the same time. Abby heard more voices and she looked at the back door just as a couple of guys and a woman came outside. So much for privacy.

  “It’s almost midnight,” Katie said. She put her phone back in her jacket pocket. “I’m going to guess that you’re tired. I know I am.” The newcomers sat down in the empty camp chairs on the other side of the fire pit and Katie greeted them. Abby just smiled and offered a little wave.

  “Yeah,” Abby said to Katie. “I am.”