Shout out to Billiam_Hader_fan08
Happy Birthday!🎂🎉🎊🎈 Have an amazing day, I hope all your wishes come true.
Oh, and thank you for this request.
It was quite a reasonable day today in Sleepy Hollow, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to have a walk.
I got up, washed, dressed, ate and pulled open the front door. I'd only walked ten steps when my parents called my name.
"Hey Y/N, where are you going?" Called my parents, who were busy cleaning out the horse troughs, as I stepped out of the house.
"The Dark Forest." I replied nonchalantly, trying to fasten my cloak, which I was having trouble with.
There was silence. *Splash* was all that you could hear as the sponges that my mother and father were using to clean fell into the buckets that were full of warm soapy suds.
"You're not serious are Y/N?" Asked my dad, his stern brown eyes fixed upon me.
"Yes..." I didn't get what was up with them. It was only one small walk.
"There's a Headless Horseman going around the village decapitating people Y/N, you're not so stupid as to go wandering off where you can easily fall victim to him. Besides, he's probably galloping somewhere in the forest right now, just waiting, waiting, waiting for someone like you to go wandering in." Said my mum looking towards the direction of the forest. She let an eerie silence pass, before turning back, and dipping her hand into the warm soapy water, as she retrieved the sponge.
I turned round and stared in the direction mum had been looking in. I gazed and watched the trees sway slightly in the wind, the dark forest lingering menacingly in the background, as though it was going to take over the village in several seconds. It couldn't of course, it was just a forest.
I turned back and glanced over at my parents, who were busying themselves with the horses again. There didn't seem to be anything more to say, so I just slipped away, ignoring their warning.
The Headless Horseman was just a silly little rumor that someone had made up, which was supposed to scare people. It definitely worked. Everyone (except me) was absolutely scared stiff of the horseman, afraid that they would encounter him and come to a literal bloody end.
Ha! No way was the Headless Horseman legit.
No one was really around as I walked, so it was fairly peaceful. It was nice, because I hated it when it was so busy. I don't know why, I just did.
Anyway, the villagers would all be busy, which meant that no one would be around to poke their long Pinoccio noses into my business and/or bother m-
"Hey Y/N, where are you going?" One of the villagers, named Mary shouted out to me from across the street, a laundry basket in her arms.
Side note: It was a fairly small village, which basically meant that everyone knew everyone else. *Sigh*
"A walk!" I yelled back.
"Where?!"
I didn't feel like discussing it, mostly cause I didn't need people knowing my business, so I just pretended that I hadn't heard her and walked on.
"You shouldn't be walking out alone, unless you want to be beheaded by the headless horseman!"
"I should be so lucky." I muttered, continuing to walk towards the forest.
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Fifteen minutes later, I was standing on the edge of the Dark Forest. It was much bigger up close...
I peered down the entrance way, only to see darkness and a path that seemed to stretch on forever. That was the moment when I started questioning if this was actually a good idea.
"Just go inside, what's the worst that could happen?" A voice inside my head told me.
"Don't go inside if you don't want to." Said another voice.
"But what about the Headless Horseman?" I asked.
"I thought he was just a silly rumor." Smirked the first.
"He's not, heads don't just decapitate themselves." Argued the second.
I leant against a tree and put my hand to my head, the voices in my head continuing to argue.
"Shut up both of you." I told the voices. "I'm going inside."
"That's the spirit." I stepped forward and nervously put a foot inside the forest. "What are you waiting for? Go on." Urged voice number one.
"You do that then. Go and get decapitated; I can't wait to see what happens. But don't go and feel sorry for yourself when you become the Horseman's personal football." Voice number two huffed.
Taking a deep breath, I went into the forest and started walking.
"What an idiot." Finished the second voice, before the voices in my head disappeared.
As I walked, the grey lifeless trees towered over me, as though they were watching my every move. This creeped me out, so I started to run, the autumn leaves going crunch crunch crunch underneath my feet.
I then hesitantly stopped and slowly looked behind me. Where there should have been the entrance that I had just come through, there now seemed to be only trees, trees and more trees. The entrance had disappeared.
I started panicking right there on the spot, dropping to my knees. I was officially lost. How would I get home? I was going to be stuck here for the rest of my life, eating nothing but leaves, twigs, and probably the occasional dead animal. I would become a savage!
Just then, I felt a bone chilling wind creep up my back and through my body, goosebumps appearing on my arms. I nervously pushed a strand of hair behind my ear, my E/C eyes darting this way and that. I then heard a sound that I never wanted to hear: the sound of horse hooves.
They didn't sound very far away, so I hastily picked myself up of the brown and red leafy floor (my legs shaking with panic) and started running. I didn't know where I was running to, but just so long as I got away from the sound of galloping, I didn't care.
As I ran I prayed that there was someone not too far away from me. 'Oh please help.' I begged inside my head.
The galloping seemed to be getting closer, so I ran faster, faster than I ever had in my entire life. My head went this way, and that way, looking for the source of the sound.
I should have focused on where I was running, because I suddenly tripped over a large rock. Hitting the floor with a soft thud, I felt my palms and knees being scraped.
Note reader that this wasn't exactly uncommon for me, I was always getting myself into some sort of trouble.
Looking up, I saw someone walking towards me. "Please don't hurt me!" I squealed, covering my head with my hands.
"I'm not going to hurt you." A soft male voice said.
I looked up, and saw a man, with dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes crouching next to me.
"But come with me. It's not safe for you to be out here, especially with the Headless Horseman around." He shivered slightly, as though the mere thought was too overwhelming for him. He then held his hand out to me.
I eyed it for a few seconds, before looking back up at the kind brown eyed stranger. He smiled. There was something about him that I knew I could trust... The sound of hooves could be heard once again.
"Quickly!" He told me looking around.
I did as he said, and grabbed his hand. He pulled me to my feet, and we hurried three trees east.
I sat down behind the tree (small beads of blood trickling from my hands) and stared up at the man. He was dressed in all black, except what appeared to be a white scarf wrapped around his neck.
"Stay here sweetheart and let me take care of the rest." He instructed me, his hand resting on my cheek.
"But you haven't told me your name!" I called, as he began to walk away.
He turned around and smiled again. "I'm Ichabod. Detective Ichabod Crane. And you're name is...?"
"Y/N L/N." I replied.
"Y/N L/N..." He said thoughtfully. "That's a very pretty name."
I blushed. "Thank you. You have a nice name too. Ichabod is quite a unique name."
"Thank you..." Ichabod rubbed his neck with embarrassment, his pale face flushed a bright pink. "Now Y/N, listen carefully to me."
I stayed quiet, listening to what Ichabod had to say.
"The Horseman wants his head, and I'm trying to retrieve it. I only have a limited amount of time to find it, so don't get yourself into trouble. He will cut down anyone who stands in his way, or is a threat to him. Even though we've barely known each other ten minutes, I care about you and want you to stay in one piece. Ok...I think that's it." He finished clapping his hands together. "Oh, and if you find yourself in a bad situation, then hoot twice like a barn owl."
"But I don't know what a barn owl sounds like."
"Then meow twice like a kitty cat. Like this," Ichabod demonstrated by doing the cutest cat meow I'd ever heard.
I giggled. "Ok, got it." I gave him the thumbs up, which he did back, before he disappeared from view.
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It'd been fifteen minutes, and Ichabod still hadn't returned. I rubbed my arms, feeling cold, a strong wind whipping my hair back and forth. My eyes were met with steely grey clouds, as I tilted my head up towards the sky. It looked like there was going to be a storm. Great, just great.
'Oh where are you Ichabod?' I thought despairingly, observing my surroundings, to try and see if I could catch a glimpse of him. That's when I saw someone running towards me.
"Ichabod, over here!" I shouted, waving my arms madly, as though I was trying to flag down a taxi.
Only it wasn't Ichabod, it was
"The Headless Horseman!!!" I screamed. Jumping up and turning round, I spotted a tree some thirteen feet away, which looked like it had been hollowed out especially for someone my size to hide inside. I desperately made towards it, hoping that it would at least protect me a little.
I didn't quite make it though.
"Y/N, watch out!" Ichabod suddenly yelled from behind, sprinting towards me.
I looked behind me, just in time to see the Horseman raise his sword and start to aim for my neck. My eyes widened with horror. I wanted to run, but I couldn't. I seemed to be stuck where I was with fright.
"Y/N!" Ichabod yelled again, throwing an oddly shaped white thing (which looked like a skull) at the Headless Horseman, before pushing me out the way, just as the sword swung towards me.
Ichabod and I turned over and sat up, watching the skull shake, before it turned into a scary man with sharp teeth. His teeth were so sharp, that they looked as though they could go through metal.
The now not so Headless Horseman stared at us, before turning and going off into the distance.
I rolled back onto my back and watched the clouds move across the thundery sky. My heart and ears were still pounding from all the adrenaline.
"You alright?" Asked Ichabod, turning onto his side to look at me.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
There was an awkward silence, during which many thoughts flit through my mind.
"Come on, let's go before The Headless Horseman loses his head again." Said Ichabod, helping me to my feet.
"Thanks."
We dusted dirt and leaves off our clothes and robes, and picked grass out of hair, before we set off towards home. We were both still quite shaken about recent events, but we were pleased.
****I hope you'll enjoyed the story. Have a good rest of the day 😘************************