Short Stories By Me

Prequel: Legend of Sleepy Hollow

My version of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow's origin. This'll be fun.

The first Headless Horseman was a man named Kathal Witherson. Every year when Samhain draws near, he picks the best pumpkins from his homegrown patch and carts them around town, selling them to the locals, and giving jack o' lanterns to kids. The pumpkins were his pride and joy. One year, some rascals decided it would be a good idea to play a trick. While Kathal went to his house to collect the last of the pumpkins, the group of boys loosened the bolts.

"He will never see this coming," one chuckled.

"This will be the greatest prank ever! Imagine his face when the pumpkins fly off the cart and roll away in the middle of the road!" another laughed.

They snuck away just as Kathal came out of the house whistling a little tune. He packed up the pumpkins and headed off. Little did he know the day won't be as peaceful as he thought.

As the cart rolled through Main Street, Kathal stopped every now and then to barter with people about prices and pumpkins. Glimpsing the boys following him as he made his stops, he handed them jack o' lanterns and made them go on their way. When he got to the end of the street, he began to turn back towards his home, whistling his merry way home.

Suddenly, the creaking cart started to shake. Kathal stared in shock as one by one, the last of his beloved batch rolled away, left crushed on the ground. He screamed in fury, eyes red, searching for whoever had done it. His eyes landed on the giggling boys partially hidden by a stack of barrels. They froze as they felt his seething rage upon their backs and began running towards the creek where they had heard a bridge was being built.

To their dismay, construction hadn't started yet. Desperate to escape the madman on their heels, they swam across the creek. The crazed Kathal, seeing them flee from his sight, fell off his horse as he threw the last of his jack o' lanterns at their heads. He drowned. They all did. Yet Kathal was still set on the warpath. Death couldn't keep him from enacting vengeance on those boys. Unsure if he killed them or not, from that night forward, Kathal's raging spirit lurks along the path, searching for his lost prey.

To continue with this mini-series, I'm currently working on the story of what happens after the movie, which will be the next part of this book. It'll be out very soon, so please keep an eye out for that! If you don't know the legend, I would recommend reading up about it or watch one of the movies based off of it. Please consider following me so you won't miss it!