“He’s in the hotel now,” Quinn said. “He’ll be here soon.”
“How, the elevator?”
“I don’t know,” he said.
She grabbed the sheets from the bed and yanked them off. They opened the balcony door and Quinn began tying part of the sheet to the railing.
“This won’t get us very far,” he said. “We’ll need to scramble down the rest of the way.”
Both of them heard a large crash down the hall, clearly coming from the same floor. Impossibly, they heard the sound of hoof beats in the hotel and someone began screaming.
Kate crossed the room and picked up her gun off the side table.
“I’m not sure a gun is going to help against him,” Quinn said.
“Maybe, but it beats the hell out of just standing here,” she replied.
“True,” he said.
The pounding hooves came to their door and stopped.
For a second there was silence. And then the room exploded with noise as a giant force collided with the door. They watched as the door seemed to bend inward and the furniture in front of it shook. But it held.
“He’s trying to come through,” Quinn said.
There was another moment of silence. Somewhere down the hall, Quinn heard a voice shouting for someone to call the police.
It definitely isn’t our imagination, he thought bitterly.
Kate pointed her gun at the door.
Another loud crash came a few seconds later as the horse collided with it again, but this time there was a cracking sound as well. They could see the door begin to splinter.
Kate cocked her gun.
“Come on through,” she said. “I’ll shoot you, you headless son of a bitch.”
The door shuddered again with another large crash.
“That ought to put the fear of God into him,” Quinn said. “Be sure to shoot him in the head.”
“Well, I don’t see you coming up with any better ideas,” Kate said.
The door bulged in the middle and there was another loud crack as it began to come apart. The horse made another run at it and splinters flew from the door. The furniture reinforcing it fell over and the horse’s nose broke through.
“Well, running away is starting to look like a great option,” Quinn said.
Kate stared at the door. Would a bullet even harm the thing?
“Okay, we need to get out of here,” she said and headed for the balcony. She holstered her gun and put it into her pants. “Come on, Quinn.”
“Where is he?” Quinn said. “The horse is out there, but I can’t tell if the Rider is.”
“It doesn’t matter. Come on!”
Quinn went to the balcony.
“You first,” he said.
Kate grabbed the bed sheet and swung herself around the iron railing. In the room, the horse now appeared to have pushed his whole head through the door. She tested the sheet-rope and decided it would probably hold. Using it, she lowered herself to the balcony below.
Quinn watched as the horse continued to destroy the door. It now had most of its body through. But he couldn’t see the Headless Horseman. The horse was there, but no rider. He didn’t have time to think about it. Instead, Quinn swung his legs around the railing and lowered himself down to the balcony below.
Above, they could hear a loud crashing. The horse was now through. Quinn could hear its hooves on the floor above.
Hanging to the fifth floor balcony, he lowered himself until his feet touched the balcony railing below. He balanced himself and then jumped to the fourth floor balcony.
“Come on,” he yelled up.
Kate followed his lead.
Above them, all chaos seemed to have broken loose. They could hear the smashing of glass and it felt like the roof might cave in.
“We don’t have much time,” Kate said.
“Where is he?” Quinn asked. “I didn’t see him up there.”
Quinn looked down to the ground below, but it was too dark to see.
Quinn swung himself over again and dropped down to the third floor balcony.
“Come on down,” he said.
He helped her down to the third floor.
Quinn felt blind. He could not tell what was happening above and he still had a sinking feeling some other trick was waiting for him below.
He swung himself over the balcony and dangled his legs over the edge again. But this time, when he looked down, he could see him.
The Headless Horseman stood on the ground below the hotel, waiting for him.
“Holy shit,” Quinn yelled. “Kate, start climbing up.”
Quinn could see the Horseman moving now, as if to start climbing the balconies himself.
Quinn tried to balance for a second, before pulling himself up to the third floor balcony. But when he looked down to see if the Horseman was pursuing, he lost his footing and fell the three stories to the ground.
Kate screamed. She watched Quinn fall in slow motion to the ground. The Horseman stood below him, waiting.
He’ll kill Quinn, she thought.
But as soon as Quinn hit the ground with a large thud, everything changed. One minute the Horseman was there, striding toward where Quinn lay.
And then he wasn’t. He disappeared as if he was never there at all.
Kate looked everywhere and she heard nothing from upstairs anymore either.
She scrambled down the last remaining balconies and hurried to Quinn, who lay unconscious on the ground. Kate looked all around her, but there was nothing anymore.
The Headless Horseman was gone.
20
“For those that were chosen, there is always the time of trial, Crowley said. A time when the chosen two’s destinies are not set. It is the most critical point for any Prince of Sanheim. Only by understanding his cennad and himself will he be able to do what must be done. Only by staring wide-eyed into the abyss will he survive.”
Horace Camden, “The Prince of Sanheim”
Kate was having trouble deciding where to look. She tried to stay focused on the road, but she kept looking at the back seat where Quinn lay.
She should have called an ambulance, she knew. She should never have moved him herself. But she had panicked and did not want to take the chance that the Horseman could come back. There was no time to think about why he had disappeared.
Thank God they were in a big enough town that there was a hospital. They had noticed it on the way into town. It must serve most of the surrounding area—it wasn’t huge, but it would be enough. She wanted him to be okay. She tried sensing something about him—in the hotel room, she was pretty sure she could hear what he was thinking and vice versa. But now she got nothing.
She didn’t know what to tell the hospital and it was only now dawning on her that the hotel would want some type of explanation for a wrecked room and vanished customers.
She shook her head and glanced back again at Quinn.
Please let him be okay, she thought. Please let him be okay.
She was unsure what to think or do. If their problems had seemed bad 12 hours ago, everything now was much, much worse. And she still had only a limited picture of what was going on.
Only a day ago, they had been worried about one vicious killer. Bad—really bad. And now? Were there two? Was one working for the other? Who was she kidding anyway? What kind of being could literally spring out of your dreams and attack you? It was too much.
Thank God Quinn had left his cell phone in the car. She picked it up while still driving and called Janus. She had to trust somebody and he was one of the only ones left.
He answered immediately, sounding wide awake even though it must have been around four in the morning. She remembered Quinn telling her he always sounded ready for action.
“It’s Kate,” she said.
“What the hell is going on, Kate?” Janus asked. He sounded concerned. “I tried to call you guys again last night. The police are out looking for you and Quinn’s place looks like
someone ransacked it before leaving.”
“You’ve been there?”
“I was looking for you guys,” he said. “Look, you may have decided that now is a good time for a romantic romp somewhere, but there is some bad shit going on and I can’t get a hold of anyone.”
“I’ll explain later,” she said.
“Wait a second, Kate, I…”
“Quinn’s hurt,” she said. “He’s unconscious and I don’t know…”
She broke off. This was simply too much.
Janus’ voice changed.
“Just tell me where to meet you,” he said.
“I’m taking him to Bluemont Hospital,” she said.
“Bluemont?” he said. “In West Virginia?”
“Look, I’ll explain later. But I need help here.”
“I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.”
Kate pulled into the emergency entrance and thought a minute before leaving Quinn in the car.
What if the Horseman came back? Or what if Lord Halloween somehow knew where she was? She felt trapped. And very alone. She hadn’t realized how grateful she was to share everything with Quinn until he was no longer there.
She ran into the hospital.
“My friend,” she told the nurse. “He’s in the car. He fell three stories. He’s hurt.”
The nurse stared at her in total disbelief.
“You moved him?” she asked.
“Yes, but that’s done,” Kate said. “Please. I need help.”
The nurse summoned three others and they went to the car to retrieve Quinn.
Janus showed up a little more than an hour later, having driven as fast as he could push his Jeep. Kate stood outside the room where Quinn was being examined. She couldn’t tell what was going on. The doctors had tried to attach Quinn to monitors earlier, but the machines had appeared on the fritz.
“What happened?” Janus asked, looking in.
“Quinn fell,” she said. “We were being chased in our hotel room and he fell off the balcony.”
Kate sat down.
“Chased by who?” Janus asked. “What the hell is going on?”
Kate started to explain. They had been stalked by Lord Halloween, they had fled. And then someone had followed them to the hotel room and attacked. She didn’t know how to bring up the dream or the very real ghost of a horse that destroyed the hotel room door, or any of it.
“So Lord Halloween found you there and just attacked full on?” Janus asked. “I don’t get it. Why didn’t you call the police?”
“I don’t think it was him,” she said.
“Who else would it be?”
“Quinn said that you and he found something weird out by the Phillips farm?” Kate asked.
“What about it?” Janus asked. “Some nut carved a strange word into a tree.”
“The same person who did that attacked us tonight,” Kate said.
“I don’t get this,” Janus replied. “How do you know it’s the same guy? How do you know it’s not Lord Halloween?”
“I don’t understand it all, Janus,” she said. “There is some strange stuff going on. I can’t explain it all.”
Janus looked in the window. “Is he going to be okay?”
“I don’t know,” Kate said and stood up to look back at the doctor examining Quinn. The light above the bed was flickering and the doctor appeared to be calling for a nurse to help. “He fell a long way and landed on his back.”
“Jesus,” Janus said and sat down. “Why didn’t you guys tell me what was going on?”
“It was my fault,” Kate said. “I was so paranoid, I didn’t want Quinn to tell anyone.”
“You didn’t think you could trust me,” Janus said and looked at her coldly. “So what has changed now?”
Kate wasn’t sure herself. But Janus was the first one she had thought of for help. It was who Quinn would have called. And her view of Janus was different too. Before, she had seen him as slightly obnoxious, but now she knew things about him. About Christina, his long-term girlfriend who had left him abruptly two years ago. She knew he had been devastated, that Quinn had to talk him off of the roof of his apartment building. The only person who could have known this was Quinn and he had never said anything. But whatever happened in the hotel room must have connected their memories somehow. Quinn trusted Janus, so now so did she.
She shook her head. This was insane.
“Quinn trusts you,” Kate said. “He told me we could count on you. And I need help now.”
“Look, I’ll help, but you have to understand, it was crazy yesterday,” Janus said. “They found another body. I talked to one of Quinn’s police sources. He said the police think the guy was killed around the same time as Fanton.”
“Was there a note?” Kate asked.
“Definitely,” Janus said. “But I don’t know what it said. Neither did the source.”
“What does Kyle think?”
“That’s another thing, Kate,” Janus said. “Laurence’s been going nuts. It may be the weekend, but he couldn’t reach any of his star reporters. Kyle didn’t answer his cell or his home number. And I couldn’t get either you or Quinn. I was beginning to wonder…”
“Has someone been to Kyle’s house?” Kate asked.
Janus shook his head.
“Not that I know of, yet,” he said. “I went over to Quinn’s and that’s when I found the place a mess. The police were already there. They said there had been some incident at the hotel and they needed to speak to both of you.”
“We left in a hurry,” she said.
“So I gathered.”
“Is it odd for Kyle to go this long without checking in? It is the weekend…”
“Kate, this is the biggest story in Loudoun’s history,” Janus said. “He wouldn’t just drop off the face of the earth. Laurence is fucking beside himself. He checked in with all the reporters after I couldn’t get in touch with either Quinn or Kyle.”
“The rest are okay?”
“I think so,” Janus said.
The doctor came out then.
“Are you the person who brought him in?” the doctor asked Kate. She nodded.
“How is he?” Kate asked.
“I wish I could say for sure,” the doctor said. “You said he fell, is that right? Did he fall on any electric power lines, or was electricity involved in some way?”
“No, why?”
“Because I can’t get a machine to work within 15 feet of him,” the doctor replied. “The lights above him are going crazy too. I just thought, sometimes electrocution or a lightning strike can do funny things…”
“He just fell off a balcony,” Kate said. “Is he going to be okay?”
“I don’t know,” the doctor said. “He’s in better shape than I would have thought if he really fell three floors. He must have been very, very lucky in how he landed.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m getting him in for x-rays, but he appears to have movement,” the doctor said. “He also appears to be dreaming some and has been moving in his sleep. All that is a good sign.”
“What’s the bad sign?”
“We can’t wake him up,” the doctor said.
“So what happens next?” Kate asked.
“I’m not sure,” the doctor said. “We are going to run a few more tests. I don’t know why we are seeing all this electrical stuff going on. We will just wait and see. I suggest you sit down and get some rest.”
And like that, the doctor was gone. He didn’t wait for questions, he just moved on.
Kate and Janus both sat down.
“What do we do now?” Kate asked. “We’re sitting ducks here. If Lord Halloween finds out… he can come right on in. Maybe get Quinn while I’m away.”
“We’re not in Loudoun County, remember? He doesn’t know you are here,” Janus said. “And this is a pretty public place. If someone shows up randomly to visit Quinn, it’s going to be a tip off that he might be Lord Halloween
.”
“Still, there are…”
“I know, I know,” Janus said. “There are lots of things that could happen. But he is in good hands for now. I won’t tell Laurence where you guys are. We can limit how many people know.”
“He might have followed us,” she said.
“I don’t know,” Janus said. “It’s your other attacker I’m worried about. You said he just disappeared?”
“I don’t know where he is,” Kate said. “But he has a penchant for dressing up. So I don’t think he will be hard to spot if he shows up again.”
“You said this was connected to the incident out on Phillips’ farm?” Janus asked. “The word ‘Sanheim’ carved into a tree?”
“Yes, why?” Kate asked.
“It’s funny but… Look, I didn’t remember back then, but I know that word.”
“It means Halloween,” Kate said.
“Yeah, but it also refers to something else, I think,” Janus said. “When I was young, my Mum told me about some legend. Some Celtic thing.”
“What are you talking about?” Kate asked.
“The Prince of Sanheim,” Janus said. “Somebody who worships the Celtic God of the Dead and gains great power on his feast day.”
“Halloween,” Kate said.
“Yes,” he said.
“What more do you know about it?”
“Nothing, really,” Janus said. “It was just some spooky story told to kids. There was a rhyme connected with it. ‘Fifty men went up a hill, none of them came down. Fifty men went to see him, none of them were found.’ But I don’t remember any details.”
Kate’s mind was racing. Whatever this was, it seemed significant. If it wasn’t connected to Lord Halloween—a possibility that didn’t make much sense to her—it could be related to this legend somehow. She looked back at Quinn. She needed him to be all right, but she also needed to keep working.
“I’m going to watch him,” Kate said. “But I need a few things. I need you to get some stuff from our hotel, I don’t care how. The files, the security tapes. We need a VCR. And I need an Internet connection.”
“It’s the middle of the damn night,” Janus said.
Kate looked at him. “And you’ve never done a little midnight breaking and entering before?”
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