Mike’s face darkened. “I know. Isn’t it disgusting?”
“You seemed friendly.”
He nodded. “We flirted a lot. I… I really liked her.”
Jason felt the truth of this. He didn’t sense evasion or fear or deception or… anything. He remembered Eliza telling him that Valerie’s mother claimed not to remember attacking her daughter. Jason was certain that Mike didn’t know what he’d done either. He had one more test, though. He reached in his pocket.
“Here,” he said. “I think this is yours?”
“Hey, my pin? Thanks!”
Mike didn’t look like a murderer confronted with incriminating evidence. He just grinned and took it.
“I wondered. Where’d you find it?”
Jason shrugged. “Sidewalk.”
Kate and Zef approached as the line moved up.
“I should go,” Jason said.
“Thanks,” said Mike, attaching the SHFD logo to his shirt. “These pins are pretty cool, huh? Come by and I’ll show you the other truck. It’s bad-ass.”
Jason nodded.
“Mike,” he added, “I – I think she really liked you too.”
Mike smiled. He shook his head.
“I wish I had taken her out,” he said.
Jason was walking back to the picnic tables when he heard the woman with the epic hairdo calling.
“Hey, kid. I’ve got a ticket for you, if you want.”
“How much?”
She shrugged. “Here. Just take it.” She put a page with a bar code in his hand.
“Free?”
“It was a comp to begin with. But these girls don’t want theirs.”
Jason noticed three little girls, barely eleven, giggling with each other.
“We’re too scared,” one of them said.
“It’s scary,” the next one said.
“Really scary,” agreed number three.
They each nodded and giggled again.
“Thanks,” Jason said. Maybe his luck had turned around. Too bad this hadn’t happened earlier, though. Kate and Zef were almost inside, and Jason would be at the back of an endless line.
“It’s a VIP ticket, too,” said the woman.
“Our daddy is the mayor!” one little girl shouted as if she expected free ice cream every time she said it.
“What does the VIP ticket do?” Jason said.
“Lets you skip the line, of course.”
25 THE HORSEMAN’S HOLLOW
Valerie turned the first card.
It was The Fool.
She stared at it.
Her mother had taught her to give each card its due, to absorb the meaning over time.
She hugged the pillow to her chest.
The Fool wears motley clothes and carries all his possessions in a bundle over his shoulder. A small dog tries to warn him of coming danger, but The Fool is so absorbed in his visions that he cannot see the perilous cliff opening at his feet.
She touched the card.
This is the boy.
#
Jason’s pupils gorged themselves on the sights across the water. Blue light splashed across the Manor’s windows and etched lines in its façade so that Jason imagined an icy campfire beneath the chin of a storyteller. A blurry duplicate floated in the mirror of the millpond.
The wind stirred a cauldron of sound; phantoms warbled through the fog; witches at Sabbath cawed and bubbled; a skeleton played the harpsichord. The first clots of visitors began to circulate, adding a new ingredient to the brew – yelps of surprise that skipped over the millpond, raising ripples of nervous laughter from the kids still in line. Somewhere in the night the Devil perched on a tombstone and fiddled for the dead.
Fireman Mike scanned Jason’s ticket and passed him through.
#
Valerie laid a second card across the first. This was The Fool’s challenge.
The Lovers.
A male and a female figure, both nudes, stand before two trees and two paths. The Fool reaches a crossroads. The One stands before him and he no longer knows which path to follow.
Valerie stared at it, considering.
Is the boy in love?
#
Zef slipped a hand around Kate’s waist as they walked. Jason hung back until a handful of others had entered and ambled into the darkness himself. He kept his eyes on Kate, but he trailed behind as much as he could. He felt like a stalker and he didn’t want to be obvious.
An embankment and fence rose on the right, hiding the road above. Poplar trees blocked the view to the left and made a canopy over their heads. A row of lanterns on hooks hung at waist level, drawing them along.
A figure lurched from the shadows. Several girls squealed and spun. A human lobster raised claws toward Zef.
“Nice costume,” Zef said, circling Kate to avoid the thing. Claws snapped at him. He flinched and laughed nervously.
Zef is scared.
Jason split his face grinning. A terrified Zef might be fun to watch.
Jason’s grin died as they filed over the walkway that ran adjacent to the Horseman Bridge. Jason had been standing just there, on the other side of the balustrade, when Fireman Mike drew Darley from the water. The ground dropped away and they crossed over the Pocantico. He could see the other bridge on the far side of the water – an aisle of rickety boards that ran along the top edge of the millpond’s dam. A row of dwarfish shadows had assembled there. Children? Mannequins? How had he missed them before? The figures opened glowing eyes and began to sing a playground tune – la la la la la la laaaa…
Jason’s flesh crept. Why are children so terrifying?
I wasn’t that creepy when I was little… was I?
Jason glanced down at his own hand on the railing. His glove was gone. Both gloves were. Where – ?
Oh.
He had left them on the picnic table.
#
Valerie turned the third card – the past of The Fool.
The Queen of Pentacles, reversed.
She put the pillow to one side. She sipped her milk.
The Fool will lose his connection to the simple things of his past – sunsets, laughter, his safe and happy home – and to the woman who provides them.
Valerie frowned. Was this Eliza?
#
Eliza stared up at the many steps that led to Hadewych’s apartment. She had never climbed them before. Her friends had always met her downstairs at Valerie’s, to save her the trouble. Now she had no choice. She had called Hadewych’s number all afternoon, leaving progressively angrier messages. So she’d had to drive the Mercedes herself, squinting against the setting sun. He hadn’t answered his phone, but here his lights were on. She spat curses and began to climb.
#
Valerie turned over the fourth card – to see The Fool’s future.
The Magician.
The figure on the card raised his rod, proclaiming his dominion over the pentacle, the cup, the sword and the wand.
Valerie covered her mouth. Hadewych?
She leaned back against the headboard.
No. There must be another interpretation. The Magician represents a master of secret and arcane forces…
That can’t mean Hadewych… can it?
#
Eliza reached the top of the stairs at last.
A television played inside Hadewych’s apartment. Eliza’s knock was too feeble to be heard over it. She leaned on the doorbell and heard it ring. Moths swept the exposed bulb of the porch light, kicking up tiny particles of dust.
“Hadewych,” she said. “Get your ass out here!”
The TV clicked off.
“Hadewych?” Eliza said. “Zef?”
The inside light went off.
With a surge of strength born of fury, Eliza seized a terra cotta pot from the landing, got her thumb around the dead root inside, and hurled pot and plant both against Hadewych’s front door. It shattered and fell – leaving a blotch of dirt on the wood. The moths fle
d, terrified.
“I can keep knocking all night,” said Eliza.
#
A moth struck Jason’s temple and fluttered down the line of lanterns. The lanterns ended at The Graveyard, a field of false headstones lit with green and pink. A man checked their tickets again and passed them through.
Some of the kids probably try to jump the fence back at the bridge, Jason thought.
Kate’s hair shimmered green as she strolled among the graves. Zef hesitated.
“Let’s go,” said a boy in an orange jacket. Zef turned, ready for a fight, but the boy backed down. Zef muttered something, turned, and stomped after Kate.
The path led into a false tomb. Inside, a coffin containing a corpse drew Zef’s attention and he failed to notice an actor disguised as a statue. The statue shrieked. Zef jumped comically, struck the doorframe and stumbled through.
Jason gave a thumbs-up to the statue as he exited the tomb. He pushed the velvet aside and thought that Kate had caught sight of him and waved – but maybe not. She was grinning, having fun, and was much amused by Zef’s skittishness.
A gravedigger sprang from the shadows. Zef cried out. A skeleton popped out of a carriage. Zef cried out. A branch poked his sleeve. Zef cried out. A girl in line said “Boo.” Zef cried out – earning laughter and catcalls.
Jason didn’t join in. He felt that the crowd was winding a toy that might explode at any minute. He’d seen the Van Brunt temper. But it was funny. He found himself fumbling for his phone.
Joey should see this.
A figure appeared at his side at once: a security guard dressed in black from tricorn hat to leather gloves, his face shrouded by black cloth.
“No video,” muttered the faceless thing.
Jason tucked his phone away and nodded in apology. He found himself remembering the photo of Darley. The security-ghost left. Jason turned and cursed. He had lost Kate and Zef. He hurried past a row of skeletons on pikes. The first raised its hands to its ears and crushed its own skull. The second blinded itself with bony fingers. The third offered Jason its own jawbone.
Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No…
#
Evil… evil…
Something was evil. Valerie could sense it. She lifted a palm and considered sweeping the cards from the bed. But…
Give the cards their due.
She took another drink. The milk had warmed and it coated her throat. That felt good.
Valerie turned another card…
The Nine of Swords.
…and began choking.
#
Hadewych coughed elaborately as he cracked the door. He did not unlatch the security chain.
“Eliza. What a nice surprise,” he said. “I was… asleep on the couch.”
Eliza pulled the folder from her purse.
“Explain this,” she said.
“What is it?” said Hadewych. His fingers slipped through the crack, reaching.
She pulled the folder away.
“The title to my house. I want an explanation. You open this door and let me in.”
“I’m not decent.”
“I don’t care if you’re buck naked,” Eliza said, beginning to burn hot. “I promise I’ve seen worse than your spotty ass.”
Five layers of charm evaporated from Hadewych’s face, leaving an irritable onion core.
“Fine,” he said, dropping the chain. He tried to come out but Eliza brushed past and crossed the threshold. What she found inside shook her – to her own core.
She was surrounded by trash on all sides.
#
Now that Jason was in the midst of The Hollow, he felt surrounded.
A three-quarter moon hung above. Fences stood at right and left. Kids milled and giggled in front, parents consoled weeping children in back. From all directions came the cries of actors, the squeals of girls, the drone of ghosts, the children’s choir, the crunching of feet on pebbles. Pumpkins flickered, candles danced. Crimson, orange, and blinding white burned in every tree. Floodlights turned the plaster of the manor into cracked blue skin.
He pushed the hair out of his eyes. What was happening to him? He felt the place triggering his imagination – the way flickering light might trigger another kid’s epilepsy. He shook his head and pushed on.
He found Kate and Zef in the Lair of the Redcoat Zombies.
Joey tried in vain to menace Zef. His makeup was terrifying, but a ridiculous purple wig spoiled the effect.
“Nice hair,” Zef giggled.
Apparently Joey was the only thing Zef wasn’t scared of.
Joey rose to the challenge, though – hissing, clawing the air and chewing the scenery (literally; he grabbed a severed arm and gnawed on it), but the damn wig was just too silly. He gave up, disappointed, and Kate and Zef walked on.
“Run!” Jason whispered in mock terror as Joey approached. “It’s the flesh-eating corpse of the Queen Mother!”
Joey stayed in character. He seized Jason by the neck and clacked teeth to bite through his skull, but then stopped, released Jason and shambled away wheezing, “No brains… No brains…”
Zef cried out ahead. People laughed. Someone had gotten him. Jason pushed through and saw Zef cursing at one of the actors, a Redcoat buried in dirt to the waist, disguised as a severed torso leaning against a fence. Zef was kicking dirt in the man’s face and screaming at him. Kate was turning circles with one hand raised to her temple. A black-shrouded security-ghost appeared and ordered Zef to leave.
“They’re all targeting me,” Zef snapped.
“Rip out ’is spine and chew on it,” hissed one zombie.
“Stick ’is head on a pike for the crows,” gibbered another.
“Oy! ’e’s not such a bad bloke!” said Zombie Joey, defending Zef as usual.
Zef climbed over the rope.
“Let’s go,” he said to Kate.
She shook her head. “I’m going through,” she said. “This cost money.”
“Fine. I’ll be outside when you’re done having fun,” said Zef. He stalked away with the security guard. Kate walked backwards up the trail, half-expecting Zef to return. He didn’t. She disappeared around a corner.
“Oh my…” said Zombie Joey, wheezing into Jason’s ear. “It’s wandered off, ain’t it? Ought to be careful, tasty little thing like that, eh? Someone might – ” He clacked his teeth. “ – eat her up.” He pushed Jason forward and limped off to dine on a tourist from Florida.
#
Valerie cleared her throat. She was wheezing but at least she could breathe.
The new card had fallen to the floor. She picked it up and put it into place again.
This signifies the near-term outcome.
The Nine of Swords.
On the card, a figure sat in bed, just as she did.
The sleeper awakes from a nightmare, or cannot sleep for terror or despair. He (she?) covers their face with their hands. On the wall behind the bed hang nine alternating swords.
The Long Dark Night of the Soul.
#
Eliza turned and faced Hadewych.
“I don’t know you, do I?” she said, indicating the room.
Hadewych lived in a hovel – a trash-filled hovel of stained newspapers and reeking dishes. One room off the hallway looked neat and tidy. Through the door she saw a military-tight bedspread, fresh paint and a boy’s letter jacket over a chair. Zef’s room defiantly rebuked his father’s squalor.
Hadewych wore boxer shorts and a greying V-neck T-shirt. “I’d like you to leave,” he said, holding the door open.
“Valerie lets you live like this?” she gasped.
“She’s... out of town.”
“For two days. You didn’t do this in – ”
“I don’t see how my house is your concern.”
Eliza’s amazement turned toward anger again.
“Fine. It’s not. But my house is. Why – ” she said, holding up the paper, “ – is your name on my title?”
“Let’s hear it.”
Hadewych gave the papers back and turned away.
“Look what you’ve done,” he harrumphed. He brushed the dirt from the door and tsked over the broken terra cotta, sweeping the pieces onto a newspaper with one hand. “You’ve been very unreasonable.”
“And you’re just buying time to make up some lie.”
Hadewych kicked the door shut and carried the mess to a trashcan. The can was already full, so he left the broken pot on the counter among dishes and spoiled food.
“I can’t say that I care for your attitude, ’Liza. This is just as much of a surprise to me.”
“I bet.”
Hadewych snapped his fingers.
“That realtor,” he said. “She must have made a mistake. She probably assumed that because I handled the transaction I was one of the buyers. That’s all. Simple enough. And the girl was in a bad state. Do you think she killed herself?”
“No. I think you killed her.”
“Good God, no.”
“To keep her from talking?”
“I had nothing to do with that,” said Hadewych. His voice sounded sincere now – but that made Eliza madder because she realized that she had never heard his sincere voice before.
“That was not me,” Hadewych said. “I swear.”
“I don’t believe anything you say.” She drew another paper from her purse. “I called my broker. He says you’re on my stock accounts too.”
Hadewych opened his mouth. He failed to find any words, so he opened the front door instead.
“Goodbye, dear,” he said.
“Don’t you ‘dear’ me, mister. If I were twenty years younger I’d snap my foot off in your ass.”
“Try it,” he said.
Eliza felt the precariousness of her position. She was alone with him. He could push her down the stairs.… She glanced at the broken terra cotta on the counter. She shoved the papers back into her purse.
Sleepy Hollow: Rise Headless and Ride Page 22