Bewitched {ON HOLD}

4 - Dreamless

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Ichabod began to follow Baltus, seeing him gesture and murmur to a few of his supposed comrades, seemingly giving them a knowing look to talk later. 

The fiddlers struck up the lively music of the party again, and Ichabod looked back spotting Katrina eye him with curiosity and Brom observe her interest in displeasure. Ichabod's eyes darted towards Evangeline who's smile he saw a second ago vanished as she vacantly walked away from his sight.

The room Ichabod was escorted to was quite spacious and practical. It was beginning to sink in to him how prosperous the Van Tassel household were. He began unpacking his leather satchel, carefully pulling out his medical case. With a wondering sigh, he opened up the case to see his instruments of detection and scientific equipment, further pondering how each piece were returned to its unbroken state as good as new.

Earlier, he had noticed that Evangeline's reaction to the disbelieving activity unfolding before him was not at all fazed. Witchcraft was, of course, the first thing to travel through his mind, only to be immediately dispelled as an option. Ichabod merely convinced himself that the paranoia he was experiencing of slight fear, including the blunt bash to his head was the cause of his mind's disorientation - leading him to believe that what he thought he saw was indeed not what he thought he saw.

His thoughts were soon interrupted as the door of his room creaked open. He looked over his shoulder to see the servant girl, Sarah placing a pitcher of water by his bed side. "Thank you. Please tell Mr. Van Tassel I will be down in a moment." Ichabod said, before unpacking his books from his satchel.

"I will, sir." Ichabod heard her footsteps make their way to the door, before hearing them stop abruptly. "Thank god you're here!" She hurriedly said, before hastily leaving the room. 

A wave of surprise surfaced on Ichabod as her tone seemed genuine and grateful, highly contrary to the mocking enthusiasm he was treated with downstairs. He had hoped that Baltus Van Tassel would treat him with at least a minimal amount of gratitude as he made his way there.

Passing through the corridors, Ichabod heard rather unusual sounds of fizzling and stressing mutters from a room he was walking by. The door of the room was a crack of a fraction open and momentarily he peered in through it.

There he saw Evangeline pacing back and forth with an unusually large tatty book in her hands. Placed on a high desk was what seemed to be a cauldron, which Ichabod found was the source of the sounds of bubbling and fizzling. The mix of smoke and mist permeated the air of the room and it, along with Evangeline's frustrated manner, caused her hair to become unruly and shabby as she stressfully muttered whispers of discomposure skimming through pages of her book.

Ichabod rushed to step away from the door sneakily, continuing to walk through the corridor as Sarah was walking far in front. He puffed a sigh of relief as neither ladies caught him peeping into Evangeline's bedroom.

It was upon seeing Evangeline with a cauldron that Ichabod's stubborn mind of realism opened briefly, seeing that Evangeline was a believer of witchcraft, in fact, possibly - and the word possibly  was emphasised in Ichabod's mind - Evangeline was indeed a witch.

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Evangeline threw her book aggressively to her side, exclaiming in vex louder than the deafening thud the thick book had against the creaks of the wooden floors. She knew that seeking more information about the prophecy would be a process that would take days - and that, she didn't have time for. She was burning to know how an investigator of technology and science could possibly save Sleepy Hollow. Evangeline was much too stubborn to admit that her skills in sorcery would be faulty, though at the same time she was much too doubtful that what she saw in her cauldron was right.