The Headless Horseman Found His Headless Horsewoma

THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN FOUND HIS HEADLESS HORSEWOMAN

A Gothic Supernatural Romance

Prologue

The Rider of Hollow Creek

Everyone in Hollow Creek knew the legend.

On nights when the moon hung low and the fog crawled across the fields, a rider could be seen galloping along the old country road.

He wore a long black coat.

His horse was enormous, black as midnight, with eyes that glowed like dying embers.

And where his head should have been...

There was nothing.

They called him the Headless Horseman.

For nearly two hundred years, he had ridden alone.

His name—when he still possessed one—had been Elias Blackwood.

He had been a soldier once. A man with a wife, a farm, and a life he had believed would last forever.

Then came the night he died.

Nobody knew exactly what happened.

Some said bandits murdered him.

Others said a witch had cursed him.

Elias himself couldn't remember.

All he knew was that he woke beneath an ancient oak with his head missing, his horse standing beside him, and an unnatural fire burning inside his chest.

From that night forward, he rode.

He frightened travelers.

He chased thieves from the roads.

He occasionally stole pumpkins from farmers because, as he reasoned, nobody could accuse a headless ghost of having manners.

But after two centuries...

Elias was lonely.

Very, very lonely.

Until one October night, he heard another horse approaching.

And whoever was riding it...

Was laughing.

Chapter One

Another Rider

Elias stopped his horse.

The fog rolled around him.

His horse, Mortimer, snorted nervously.

Elias slowly turned toward the sound.

Gallop.

Gallop.

Gallop.

A second horse emerged from the mist.

It was pale gray, its mane flowing like silver smoke.

And upon its back sat a woman.

She wore a long crimson riding coat.

Black boots.

Leather gloves.

And an elegant black hat.

Elias stared.

Then he noticed something.

Her shoulders were attached to absolutely nothing.

She was headless.

Elias nearly fell off his horse.

The mysterious woman pulled her horse to a stop.

For several seconds, the two riders simply stared at one another.

Then she spoke.

"You're blocking the road."

Elias blinked.

At least, he imagined he did.

"I'm sorry?"

"You heard me."

"I... didn't realize there was another rider."

"Clearly."

Mortimer snorted.

The woman's horse snorted back.

Elias straightened proudly.

"I am the Headless Horseman."

The woman crossed her arms.

"So?"

"So?"

"Yes. So?"

"I am a legend."

"So am I."

Elias stared at her.

"You're a headless woman."

"And you're a headless man."

"Yes."

"Then I suppose we're even."

Elias didn't know what to say.

For the first time in two centuries...

Someone had left him speechless.

Then the woman laughed.

It was a warm, beautiful laugh.

Elias felt something strange stir inside his chest.

His ghostly heart hadn't beaten in 187 years.

Yet suddenly...

It did.

Thump.

Chapter Two

The Headless Horsewoman

Her name was Victoria Graves.

At least, that was what she called herself.

She had been riding the countryside for almost eighty years.

Unlike Elias, she remembered exactly how she had died.

"An angry husband," she explained.

Elias tilted his invisible head.

"Your husband killed you?"

Victoria nodded.

"He tried to murder me during a thunderstorm."

"That's horrible."

"It was."

"What happened?"

"I survived."

Elias paused.

"Then how are you headless?"

Victoria pointed toward the horizon.

"My husband wasn't very good at aiming."

Elias stared.

Then Victoria laughed again.

To his surprise, Elias laughed too.

The two ghosts sat beneath an ancient tree until sunrise.

They talked about their lives.

Their deaths.

Their horses.

The strange things they had seen.

Victoria discovered Elias had an obsession with pumpkin pie.

Elias discovered Victoria had once frightened an entire wedding party simply because the groom had been cheating.

"I like you," Elias said.

Victoria smiled.

"I like you too."

Neither of them realized that somewhere beyond the trees...

Something was watching.

Chapter Three

The Curse of the Crimson Moon

Three nights later, the riders met again.

And again.

And again.

Soon, Hollow Creek began to notice something unusual.

There were no longer one headless rider on the roads.

There were two.

Travelers began whispering about them.

A headless man and a headless woman riding side by side beneath the moon.

Some claimed they were hunting sinners.

Others claimed they were lovers.

The truth was much stranger.

Elias and Victoria were falling in love.

Unfortunately...

Neither of them had heads.

Which made courtship rather complicated.

"Would you like to go dancing?" Elias asked one evening.

Victoria paused.

"Dancing?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"The old cemetery."

"Romantic."

"I thought so."

They rode beneath the moon and danced between the gravestones.

Their horses circled lazily around them while the ghosts moved beneath the silver light.

For the first time in decades, Victoria felt happy.

But then the moon turned crimson.

Both riders stopped.

Their horses reared.

A voice echoed through the cemetery.

"Two riders without heads..."

The ground trembled.

"...but only one curse."

Victoria grabbed Elias's hand.

"What was that?"

"I don't know."

A figure stepped from the darkness.

An old woman wearing a cloak made from raven feathers.

She smiled.

"You've found each other."

Elias drew his sword.

"Who are you?"

The old woman laughed.

"I am the witch who cursed you."

Victoria froze.

"So you're responsible for this?"

"Not entirely."

The witch pointed at Elias.

"He was cursed to wander until he found the one person who could share his fate."

Then she pointed at Victoria.

"And she was cursed to wander until she found the one person who could give her heart a reason to beat again."

Elias looked at Victoria.

Victoria looked at Elias.

Their ghostly hearts began beating together.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The witch smiled.

"But curses always have a price."

Chapter Four

The Price of Love

"What price?" Elias demanded.

The witch raised one finger.

"One of you must give up immortality."

Silence.

Victoria tightened her grip around Elias's hand.

"If one of us becomes mortal..."

"Then the other must remain a ghost," the witch said.

Elias looked at Victoria.

For nearly two hundred years, he had dreamed of having his life back.

But now?

He had something more important.

Someone to share eternity with.

"I'll do it," Elias said.

Victoria immediately shook her head.

"No."

"I've been dead for nearly two centuries."

"And I've been dead for eighty years."

"You deserve another life."

"So do you."

They stood facing one another.

Neither willing to sacrifice the other.

The witch watched silently.

Then she smiled.

"Perhaps I miscalculated."

"What do you mean?" Victoria asked.

The witch lifted her hand.

"Perhaps the curse was never meant to separate you."

The crimson moon suddenly shattered into ordinary silver light.

The cemetery became silent.

And then...

Something extraordinary happened.

Elias felt warmth.

Victoria felt warmth.

Their ghostly bodies began glowing.

For the first time since their deaths...

They could feel their own hearts.

The witch whispered:

"True love was never the curse."

She disappeared into the mist.

"It was the cure."

Chapter Five

Two Legends

The next morning, travelers found something strange along Hollow Creek Road.

Two sets of hoofprints.

Side by side.

They continued through the countryside and disappeared beneath the trees.

Nobody knew where the riders went.

But every October, when the moon was full and the fog rolled across the fields, people still claimed they could see them.

A headless man riding a great black horse.

Beside him, a headless woman riding a silver-gray mare.

Sometimes they rode silently.

Sometimes they laughed.

And sometimes...

They stopped beside the road and watched travelers pass.

Nobody ever knew exactly what they were saying.

Though one farmer swore he heard the woman tell the Horseman:

"You missed your turn."

And the Horseman replied:

"How would you know? Neither of us has a head."

The farmer claimed the woman laughed so loudly that every crow in the forest took flight.

From then on, the legend changed.

There was no longer a Headless Horseman.

There were two.

The Headless Horseman and the Headless Horsewoman.

And they rode together...

Forever.

Epilogue

One Last Secret

Years later, another legend began.

Children whispered that sometimes, on Halloween night, a strange little lantern could be seen between the two riders.

Some said it was a ghostly flame.

Others said it was a magical pumpkin.

But the oldest residents of Hollow Creek knew the truth.

The Headless Horseman and his Horsewoman had adopted a ghost.

A tiny spirit who had been wandering alone.

And every October night, the three of them rode together beneath the moon.

Because apparently...

Even the undead could make a family.

And somewhere beyond the cemetery, the old witch watched them from beneath her raven-feathered cloak.

She smiled.

"Finally."

Then she disappeared into the fog.

And the legend continued.