Eleanore Crane

Angry Katrina

It was now late at night, well pretty much early morning. The large, brown chair in the corner of the room was currently occupied by a sleeping Mazbeth, small snores coming from him every so often.

Ichabod sat at his desk writing in his book, a lit candle nearby for light, he had Elenore on his lap who was also sleeping (he refused to let her accept Mazbeths offer of sharing the chair) and he was gently fiddling with strands of her dark hair which helped him concentrate.

He was interrupted by a quiet, yet suspicious thud coming from downstairs so he carefuly woke up Elenore and hit Mazbeth on his arm to wake him up, which the young girl scolded him for.

They tip toed down the stairs and silently peered over the railing to see the downstairs area, they were just able to catch a glimpse of a cloaked figure leaving the room as it was illuminated by the light coming from a rather large window. They promptly followed after it.

They reached the outside area of the back of the Van Tassel residence, the place was surrounded with sleeveless trees and most carpeted the ground, Elenore was also able to make out the suilloute of a windmill in the distance.

They watched as the cloaked figure navigated it's way through the trees with a lit lantern held out in form of it and set off to chase yet again, creeping through the woods and trying to make as little sound as possible.

Elenore noted that the figure was like a phantom in the way that it moved, its feet glided across the leaves almost as if it were floating.

They came to a small clearing and Ichabod abruptly stopped causing the two children to almost crash into his back, he turned around and whispered to them.

"Wait here" To which they nodded and grasped each others hands.

Ichabod continued on his slow chase, pulling his gun out along the way, just in case and what he eventually came across was something he never would have suspected to see.

There on the dirty, forest floor lay Lady Van Tassel with another woman played over the top of her, the woman reminded Ichabod of a Vampire with the strange sounds it was making and it almost looked to be eating Lady Van Tassel.

Constable Crane watched on in shock and utter bewilderment and Lady Van Tassel picked up a silver dagger, that he previously hadn't noticed and sliced open the plam of her hand, blood dripped down the sides of her hand and onto the forest floor.

Ichabod was even more confused when she started to rub her blood on the back of the other lady and finally decided that he had seen enough and swiftly turned back around to collect the children.
********************
They had walked all the way back to the Cranes room at the Van Tassel residence and Ichabod hadn't uttered a single word, he would not answer the children's questions no matter how much they persisted.

Upon noticing that the draw was a little askew, Elenore walked over to the desk and opened it.

"This is bad" she muttered cathing the other twos attention.

"What, what is it sweetheart?" Ichabid asked walking over and placing a hand on her shoulder, she didnt need to answer as he peered into the draw himself, finding it empty.

"Mazbeth, why dont you go home for the night, I shall come for you tomorrow" He said after a moments thought

"Yes sir, I shall see my tomorrow Elenore"

Matbeth gave they young girls hand a small kiss before leaving the room and closing his door on the way out.

"That better not be blush on your cheeks, little Ellie" Icabod said and she giggled a little.
********************
The two of them arrived at the old Van Tassel house where Katrina had taken them a couple days before, where they found said girl throwing paper onto the fire.

Ichabod quickly jumped off Gunpowder and helped his daughter off before rushing over to the blonde girl.

"Katrina"

She stood up and turned to the face the father and daughter, a solmnem look on her face.

"You took the evidence and burned it" He continued.

"So that you would not have it to accuse my father"

"I accuse no one, but if the is guilt I can't alter it no matter how much it grieves me and no spells of yours can alter it either"

Elenore looked up at Katrina with sad eyes and the older woman resided to look her in the eye, Ellie couldn't believe thay it was Katrina who would try to curse them, especially father what she had done for her earlier during the day.

"It was your father who had the motive and the only one to profit from these muders"

"If you knew him, you would not have such harsh thoughts about him"

Elenore glared at her "I thought I knew you and I am having some very harsh thoughts if you at this moment" she sneered.

Katrina was hurt by the girls words but did not show it, Ichabid held Elenore's hand and rubbed crickets of the back of it to try and calm her down.

"Nor I'd you felt anything for me"

"I am pined by a chain of reasoning, why else did his four friends conspire to conceal-"

"You are the constable, not I. So find another chain of reasoning and let me be"

"I can not, nor one or the other and I am heart sick with it"

"I think you have no heart, and I had a mind once to give you mine"

At thay statement Elenores eyes widened considerably, how dare she say that her father did not have a heart, he was the most caring person that she knew and she had no idea that Katrina had feelings for her father, she didnt really know how to feel about that at the moment.

"Yes, I think you loved me that day you followed me into the western woods, to have Braves such perrel"

Elenore was even more confused now 'when did all this happen, where had I been in all this' she thought to herself.

"What perrel was there for me, if it was my own father thay controlled the headless horsmen"

She stormed away from the two of them and hicked up her dress to be able to get on top of her horse. She was about to leave but turned around to say once last thing.

"Goodbye, Ichabod and Elenore Crane I curse the day you came to sleepy hollow" and with that final remark she was gone into the mist.

Elenore couldn't believe what had just happened, merely hours ago she and Katrina were spending time together, smiling and laughing, she had finally found someone beside her father that she truly trusted only to now find out that, Katina hated her and had cursed her. She was beyond upset and was now starting to realise why her father had always kept her inside all her life, to keep her away from pain such as this.

"Papa, I want to go back to New York, I wanna go home" She spoke in a quiet voice.

Despite feeling awful himself, Ichabod pushed his feelings aside and focused on his daughter, able to tell that she was close to tears, he picked her up and she buried her head in the crook of his neck.

"I promise, my darling as soon as I finish this case we will be leaving this town and never coming back, I am sure we will be able to go home soon"