By: Alyza Van Tassel
Inspired by Tim Burton's 1999 film, "Sleepy Hollow,"
and Washington Irving's original tale.
All suggestions welcome. Please do not
sue me, this is just MY version of the story!!!!!!, and I am certainly not
profiting in any way by this, other than having the pleasure of knowing that
other people will read and like my writing. Please ask me for permission before
using this story anywhere and do not plagiarize, or I'll chop your head off like
a tulip! :) Hee hee, I'm kidding…but don't you DARE copy without permission! (If
you ask me to let you put it on your site or something, I'm pretty sure I'll say
yes…but ASK first! K? PLEEEEEASE?? :) (E-mail me at: Alyza_@excite.com) Alyza,
Eliot (as MY character), and all other people who do not appear in the originals
belong to me. A couple of things about the story. No, at first, the Headless
Horseman is not ghastly-looking in the BEGINNING like in the movie (sharp teeth,
I mean) I'll let you know how he changes as the story progresses. K? And
remember..... NO PLAGIARISM!!! Or else!!!
Chapter the First
Here begins the tale............
Sleepy Hollow, New York, 1770
"Alyza…" The high-pitched sound came from outside.
After a minute of no
response, the voice spoke again, this time louder and with more impatience.
"Hey, Alyza!! You awake?"
A bump on the white, quilt-covered bed stirred
slightly. A moment later, a sleepy girl of about the age of 15 emerged from
underneath the covers. Her long blonde hair was a complete mess; the result of
what she called a 'nightmare night.'
Alyza Van Tassel slowly got up, nearly
hitting her head on the low canopy. Yawning, she took the cup of water from her
bedside table. She set it down once she saw that some wax had dripped from her
night candle into the cup.
"Well, THIS day is starting off nice," she
muttered to herself as she made her way to the window to the left of her bed.
She pulled aside the silky white curtains, letting the warm effulgence of the
morning sun envelop her and the room. Her mood brightened at seeing the glowing
horizons and the woods in the distance. Even though Sleepy Hollow always looked
the same, it fascinated her every time. Alyza just wished she could say the same
about the life she led there.
She stuck her head out the window, and beheld her friend Paul Masbath, a
raggedy boy of the same age as Alyza herself. He was from a family much poorer
than the Van Tassels (they were of the middle class), but Alyza's best friend
nonetheless. She did not care how much money Paul had. He brushed his brown hair
to one side and looked up, squinting.
"Hey there," he said. "Wow, your hair
is almost as messy as mine!"
Alyza gave him a sarcastic smile. "Very funny,"
she said. "What are you doing here this early, anyway?"
"Well, I figured your
father's still asleep, so he won't yell at me," Paul replied. "You know, with
him not wanting me here and all."
Alyza made a gesture of rejection. "Oh,
pish-posh," she said. "No one is going to tell me who MY friends are."
"So
you're coming or not?"
"Of course," Alyza said. "'Tis tradition."
"Great,"
Paul answered. "Then—"
Just at that moment, Alyza heard someone coming up the stairs. "Oh no, be
quiet," she whispered to her friend. "My father's coming."
Paul made a wave
of agreement and vanished behind the corner of the house.
The heavy door
opened.
"Good morning, sunshine," her father's head (since that was all that
could be seen in the doorway) said. Finally, the rest of her father stepped into
the room.
"How are you?"
"Very well, Father," she replied, all the while glancing
outside out of the corner of her eye. She hoped Paul didn't scram.
Now was the time for her to apply her powers of persuasion. "Papa..."
"Oh
my word," he said immediately. "Whenever you call me that, it either means you
want something or you're just being nice." He smiled. "It is usually the
former."
Alyza wasted no time. "May I go gather some flowers today? It is
such a beautiful spring morning, and I thought--"
"Of course, dear," he
replied, and Alyza smiled. "Take heed of the woods, though; make sure you leave
them before darkness falls."
"Don't worry," she answered as she kissed him
on the cheek. "I'll be back before you know it." With that, she skipped out the
door, in a mood quite different from her usual morning moods.
"Everything is in bloom," Paul said as the pair walked just outside the
Western Woods on a flower-filled meadow. Alyza breathed in the air deeply. The
scent was intoxicating, wonderful. She bent and added some more flowers to her
giant bouquet.
"What on earth are you planning to do with all those
flowers?" Paul wondered aloud. Alyza smiled.
"Well, half are going into our
house, and half are...for you-know-what."
"Ah, I see. But we don't need this
much," Paul replied. "It's usually only a few handfuls."
"Don't worry, we
can always scatter them to the winds," Alyza answered and took off at high
speed, her long light blue dress and transparent veil trailing behind her.
"Hey, wait!" Paul yelled out as he followed her to their usual place, a
small clearing just beyond the meadow. Once there, he found his best friend
seated, accompanied by three other young women and a young man. They lifted
their heads up to look at him. They were smiling, happy to see all the members
of their group assembled together once again.
They helped the poor of Sleepy
Hollow. They gathered herbs and made healing potions to help treat illnesses.
But their group meetings were kept secret, for some of their practices involved
chants to help inspire them.
Sephine Castellion, the daughter of a prosperous Spanish merchant who had
moved to the Hollow three years ago, and her friend Ines Alighieri greeted Paul
with warm and welcoming glances. So did the third member of the group, Genevieve
Van Garrett, the only child of the richest man in Sleepy Hollow. The fourth was
Ryan Bates, a nice, sweet guy, who had had his eye on Genevieve for quite a
while....
Alyza waved for Paul to come down the hill. She turned back to the
wooden bowl she held in her hands.
"Are we all ready, then?"
"Absolutely," Paul said, finally sitting down next to Sephine. Alyza grinned
to herself. It was so obvious he liked her. She could hardly keep from chuckling
as she saw him smooth out his brown hair and brush it back. Sephine blushed. He
did look very handsome though, but Alyza did not like him in that way. Paul had
been her friend for too long. She had seen him do things like puke, fall into
puddles and off trees, and faint.......the list went on. She wondered what
Sephine would think if she knew half the things Alyza knew. Nevertheless, she
decided not to say a word.
"Err......let us proceed, then," Alyza finally said. They sat in a circle.
Alyza put herbs and special leaves that she had gotten from her house into the
bowl. Genevieve added fresh water from the river. Paul helped Sephine get the
juice out of the berries that they had gathered in the Western Woods. Finally,
Ines stirred the mixture. They all breathed in, out, and in again. Alyza started
a chant....
"Rogo auxilia Dei. Laudamus legatum caelorum. Cupimus bonos res."
Ines and Sephine translated the Latin into English, saying it together,
inhaling the deep scent of the potion they had made. "I ask God for help. We
praise the legate of the skies. We desire good things."
Ryan, Paul, and
Genevieve joined in. Alyza unnoticeably rolled her eyes (but in a nice sweet
way) at Paul. He was singing louder than everyone to impress Sephine. Why did he
act like such a goofball every time he was around her? Well, Alyza just answered
her own question. She had to admire the girl, though, and didn't blame Paul for
liking her. She only wished that one day, SHE would meet a charming, dark,
handsome man who would truly love her, forever. Ah, but those kinds of people
existed only in fairy tales, it seemed. But deep in her heart, Alyza knew that
someone like that was out there, somewhere.
She stopped her rambling thoughts and concluded the chant, pouring the concoction into a small blue bottle. This would be later heated and left to settle.
She was happy.