Title: The Results of What Would Happen if Washington
         Irving took Jason Katims` Place
Author: Nina
Category: Max / Liz
Rating: PG (Swearing)
Summary: What the nutsy title sounds like. A phychotic, odd, and
absolutely insane blend of Roswell and the movie Sleepy Hollow.
Disclaimers: I don`t own Roswell and I don`t own Tim Burton`s wonderful
version of Sleepy Hollow. In fact, there`s lots of stuff goin` on in
this story that aren`t my brainchild, so how about if I just disclaim
myself from the whole damn lot? Just call me a walking talking rip-off.
Spoilers: Uh.... after you read this thing you`ll look back at the
possibilty of this spoiling anything and laugh hysterically, to say the
least.
Author`s Note: I`ve officially gone nuts, my friends. And where this
rediculous fanfic came from: after watching my newly decided favorite
movie ever, Sleepy Hollow, I had it on the brain. Then I watched Roswell
the next night and said, "Oooh." I told myself it wouldn`t make any
sense to write this but my mind kept making up ways to fit the story to
together, and I gave up, so here it is, my friends: A Roswell/ Sleepy
Hollow fanfic. Call me mentally ill if you want to. Max (a.k.a. the
Roswellian Ichabod Crane) is a constable from New York sent to the town
of Roswell (a.k.a. Sleepy Hollow) to investigate mysterious murders
which are seemingly carried out by an alien killer (a.k.a. roswellian
version of the Headless Horseman). Liz is the daughter of the landlord
of Roswell (a.k.a. the Roswellian version of Katrina Van Tassel.) Also
has brief mentioning of Isabel, and some stuff with Michael, and also
involves Maria (sorry, no Alex involved here.)

    Part 1

    "Constable Crane?" one of Maxwell Crane`s superiors, who`s name was
Hans Jirken, said when he entered the room. "Do you realize that when
you are summoned you are expected to report within the hour, at least?"
    "Yes, Sir," Max mumbled.
    "Don`t let it happen again. The first twenty minutes of this meeting
were to lecture you on your last assignment, on the rediculous
suggestions you made on how to investigate the-"
    "Pardon me," Maxwell said, "but is it that absurd that I found it of
great importance to see if the victims were dead before they were put in
the water? Would it have been that foolish to want to know if we were
dealing with a criminal that drowned people or with a criminal that
choked people and threw their bodies into the water?" he asked, raising
his voice a little too much.
    "What difference would it have made?"
    He rolled his eyes. "If the two indeed drowned by theirselves it
would be accidental and therefore with no need of further investigation,
but the reason I was sent was that there was not one but two drowned
people, pointing to the possibility that someone drowned them on
purpose. But no one even looked at the possibility that they could have
been dead already before being deposited into the river, and if I could
find out if they were choked or poisoned or whatever in God`s name was
done to them, and maybe how long they had been dead, I could have used
the information to point out suspects and-"
    "It is all very pleasant to listen to, but might I remind you they
were drowned by the murderor, not killed before put in the water. You
proved that despite the way you seemed so convinced that they were not
drowned. Your rubbish about them being killed in any other way was
nothing but that: rubbish."
    "I was right about one thing. No one was suspecting a woman at all."

    "Yes, you were right about that one thing, Crane. But please, it was
a strange and rare kind of case, something that was a little too complex
for your confusing mind. It caused far too many arguments. It was a very
strange case indeed, especially the results. We send Maxwell Crane off
to bring us a criminal and he comes back with a woman? How does that
manage to happen?"
    Maxwell opened his mouth to say somethign to that, but Hans cut him
off with a, "Constable."
    Max sighed. They weren`t going to let him finish. They never let him
finish.
    "We have another assignment for you, Crane," Hans continued.
    Max was surprised. He lifted his eyebrows as he asked, "So soon,
Sir?"
    "I thought this specific case would be fit for you to put your
socalled up-to-date scientific methods of investigation to the test."
    He yawned. "Really."
    "Being a good one for your methods, it is a quite odd situation at
that. Two mysterious deaths have occured in a small town a day`s journey
east of here. It is a town called Roswell."
    Maxwell shuddered. This was unexpected. Very, very unexpected.
    "Have you heard of it?" he was asked.
    "Yes," Max said. "Is it not that town famous for a supposed alien
spaceship crash that everyone loves to rave about?" He didn`t mention
for important reasons that he also knew Roswell as the very place he
grew up in.
    "That would be the place. The two persons have been a Dirk Van
Garret and a widow by the name of Emily Winship. Both of which were of
middle age and both were found outside dead, with no visible wounds."
    "Poisoning?" Crane suggested.
    "Poisoning. The villagers think not. The only poisonous substance
available to them would not take hold and kill so suddenly, and both the
widow and Van Garret were seen at least ten minutes before they were
believed to be killed in perfect health. No, Crane, the people in
Roswell seemed quite convinced they were killed directly."
    Maxwell pursed his lips. "Um... directly, Sir?"
    "Yes. All kinds of rumors have spread about a strange murderer that
kills with the touch of his hand. It`s very odd."
    Crane nodded. "Odd indeed."
    "You will take this case?"
    Max thought. It was going to be hard to go back. Hard to face the
things in Roswell that had made him leave in the first place. But this
would be an interesting opportunity to prove himself right about his way
of investigation. He didn`t seem to have a choice in the matter.
    He sighed. "Yes."

    The carriage bounced violently over yet another bump, jerking
Maxwell awake for the fourth time. He gave up and sat up in his seat. He
looked out the window of the carriage at the trees of the surrounding
woods whipping by, with his chin resting over his clasped together
hands. It was clear already that he was a long way from New York. He
leaned back up and rubbed his cold hands together, and then stared down
at his hands like he had every day for ten years. At the peculiar dark
marking on his fingers and his wrists. There used to be small marking up
and down part of his arms too, but by now they had faded. He wished the
scars on his hands would fade too, even though he knew they never would.
Every day they reminded him...
    BUMP! Max cursed under his breath at the shaking of the coach. He
held onto the side of the seat to stop himself from rocking back and
forth. The road seemed to get rougher as it got farther from New York.
    More like nearer to Roswell, Maxwell realized. The city was long
gone now. This was the forest.
    Somehow after that he drifted back off to sleep.

    There was a loud bang on the window of the carriage. Max`s eyes
snapped open to see a view of a small town full of wood houses out the
window. And the coachman outside the door. He opened it and Maxwell got
out and the coachman then gave him his bags from the back. He didn`t say
goodbye before he got back into his seat and steered the carriage out of
the town. He was probably too tired to be polite.
    Max stared ahead at the dark little town at night. Eerie little
place, he dissmissed. He recalled the directions he`d been given to the
landlord`s house and started walking around to find his way. No one
seemed to be out at all. All the houses were entirely shut up.
    Once Maxwell found the house he was looking for, which was a pretty
obvious by it`s great size, he walked up the porch and knocked on the
door. He could hear lots of people inside already. And music. And lots
of-
    The door creaked open. The music became louder. Max could see lots
of people behind the servant girl who had opened the door. "Yes Sir?"
    "I`m here for Baltus Van Tassel," Maxwell answered. She nodded.
    "Come in, then," she said. "He`ll be down."
    She let him in past her and shut the door. Max stared around the
large room with people standing and dancing everywhere. A very
noticeable place was where a circle of five or so big men were in a
circle around one single blindfolded young woman, who had two little
children at her waist playfully spinning her around. The girl giggled.
"This is so silly."
    The two children stopped spinning her around and backed away. "If
you would refresh my memory," the woman said with a smile. "Now what
happens?"
    "You have to pick out your favorite," one of the children instructed
her. "If you find Kyle on the first try you win and get to kiss him."
    "I would do that anyway," she laughed. "What happens if I don`t find
Kyle?"
    "You have to kiss who you pick anyway," the other child said with a
snicker.
    "This is so silly," she repeated. She turned slightly to her right
and reached for the person there, which happened to be one of the
children. So as a result, she reached out and touched thin air, and
worked her arms down to find the boy`s shoulders which lined up with her
waist. "Of course I pick one of the boys. Is it Theodore or Robin?"
    "Guess," the boy giggled.
    The blindfolded woman obviously knew his voice. "Robin." Then she
leaned over and kissed the child on the forehead. "There. I lost."
    "You lost, but the game`s not over," the other one said, who must
have been Theodore.
    "It`s not?" she asked. The grown men around the circle were tsarting
to look bored.
    "No. You have to keep picking other people till you find him."
    "Oh dear," the lady sighed. She reached out right at a gap in the
circle in between two of the men and accidentally grabbed-
    Maxwell Crane, who had just been passing by. He stiffened in
surprise at her sudden touch on either side of his face.
    "Kyle?" the woman asked to Max`s face.
    The children as well as a couple of the men were giggling. "No."
    "It is, I know it is," the girl insisted. "That`s why you`re
giggling."
    Max didn`t have timeto say anything before she leaned forward and
planted a kiss on his cheek. Then she lifted the blindfold away from her
eyes and stared at him in surprise at a face that not only was not
Kyle`s but one she didn`t recognize. But there was something else in her
eyes too...
    "You are not Kyle."
    Maxwell looked just as surprised at it all as he said, "I`ve been
hired by the landlord. Baltus Van Tassel?"
    The woman smiled. Max admired her neat, smooth dark brown hair, and
marveled at her lovely embroidered yellow dress, the way it tightly
hugged her waist and bosom. "You must be the constable. Baltus is my
father. My name is Elizabeth Van Tassel. It`s a pleasure to have you
here, constable."
    "What about you?" interrupted a brown-haired man standing beside
Elizabeth who had been in the circle. "It doesn`t seem we`ve heard your
name." His intentions of sounding polite were weak, if attempted at all.

    Max assumed this was Kyle. "I didn`t think to mention it yet, with
you staring a hole through me." He started to walk away.
    Kyle grabbed him. "How about I teach you some manners?"
    Elizabeth Van Tassel put a hand on his shoulder. "Kyle, leave him
alone."
    Kyle let go. He opened his mouth to say something else, but then
Elizabeth looked to her side and said, "Oh good, here comes my father
now."
    Maxwell followed her gaxe to a man coming into the room with an
elegantly dressed woman at his side. "Why hello, Sir. Welcome to our
home, and if you are selling something the answer is no but you`re still
welcome to stay and enjoy yourselves."
    "Uh... no, Sir," Max said. "I`ve been sent from New York..."
    "Oh yes! The constable then!" Baltus Van Garret said. "We welcome
you to Roswell, Sir. Sir..."
    "Constable Maxwell Crane," Max announced.
    "Ah. I am Baltus Van Tassel, of course, and this is my wife
Christine Van Tassel." Christine curtsied to Max, who bowed in head just
slightly. "Well I shall have the servant girl show you to your room in a
moment and then I will see you back down here in the living room."
    Maxwell nodded. Then Baltus turned to Christine Van Tassel by him
and said, "My dear, if you would find Maria and tell her that. I have to
gather everyone into the living room."
    "Of course," she said. "Lizzy? Do you know where she went?"
    "I have not seen her," Elizabeth answered. Then young Robin was
tugging at her dress eagerly. "What is it, Robin?"
    "She`s over there," the boy announced, pointing off to where the
girl who had answered the door for Max was in a large croud dancing with
a little girl`s feet upon her own, being carried back and forth as she
danced this way and that. The servant girl wore a plain dark blue dress
and she had big, glimmering eyes and long blonde hair that loosely hung
over her face and curled under at her shoulders.
    Christine Van Tassel didn`t look happy. "Maria!" she called across
the room, but it was too loud, so she sighed and made her way across the
large room with people dancing all over the place.
    Kyle, who Maxwell hadn`t even realized had left, came back with two
glasses half full of brandy and handed one to Elizabeth. "Shall we join
the Steinwicks?" he asked her, holding out an elbow for escorting.
Elizabeth looped her hand over his arm and they were off to another side
of the room. Maxwell sensed very strongly Kyle was trying to get her
away from him, but he didn`t let himself worry about it. It didn`t
matter.
    Max was caught by surprise when young woman suddenly stepped by his
side. Not stepped. Fell into his side was more like it. She wore a light
green brocaded dress with a splitted skirt and a white layer underneath.
Her curls and curls of blond hair were put back in a french braid tied
at the bottom with a rich green ribbon.
    "Pardon me, Sir," she said with a smile. Her smile was a tricky,
playful one, and her eyes glimmered as she grinned. She was a little too
happy, Maxwell thought. "Do you imagine you could treat me to a dance
with you, constable?"
    "I imagine you have had one glass too much brandy tonight, Miss,"
Max said uneasily. "How did you know..."
    "Oh, city people," the girl laughed. "You know them when they
arrive. If you would not give me a dance an introduction would be nice."

    "Constable Maxwell Crane. And you migth be..."
    "Tessella Van Tassel."
    "Van Tassel? Meaning Baltus Van Tassel?"
    "No blood relation."
    Max let himself  look confused.
    "Christine is not the first Lady Van Tassel," Tessela explained.
"Lizzy`s mother, Wendy, died when the dear could barely walk yet. Then
Baltus married my mother when me and Lizzy was were both eight. I
suppose you could say our family is split in the center by blood."
    "I see," Maxwell said with a nod. He looked to his left to briefly
catch a glance of Lady Christine leading the servant away from the party
and over to him. "Well, I best be on my way now, Miss Tessela. It has
been... gracious."
    Tessela Van Tassel smiled a too-big smile. "Indeed it has. I shall
talk to you later, Mister Crane."
    Maxwell was a little relieved when she walked away. The servant girl
approached him and politely put a hand on his shoulder to get his
attention and asked, "If I may I take your bags, Constable?"
    "Thank you," Max said, handing her his bag with his clothes but
keeping the other one with his ledger and instruments which he never let
into anyone else`s hands. He followed the lady up the stairs behind the
spot where they had been and she led him into a cozy little room with a
happy window and bed with a colorful quilt over it.
    "Anything else I can do for you, constable?" the girl asked.
    "No, thank you, Ma... Maria it is?"
    Maria nodded. "I`ll tell Mister Van Garret that you`ll be down soon.
Take your time. And if there is anything I can get you-"
    "Thank you. I will call." Max assumed already that there couldn`t
possibly be much he would need from her.
    "Goodnight then, Mister Crane."
    "You too."
    Maria curtsied and turned out of the doorway.

    "Goodbye, Kyle," Elizabeth said. "And good night."
    "Same to you," Kyle said and kissed her forehead. "If you will send
my warm thanks to your father and stepmother for the lovely night."
    "I will." With that Elizabeth closed the door as he descended down
her porch.
    Maxwell cleared his throat and ignored this as he passed Elizabeth`s
back heading into the parlor. There sat Baltus Van Tassel and two other
men who looked like they didn`t have little money, to say the least. He
was invited to sit down with the rest of them by the fireplace and
Baltus introduced him to Reverend Steinwick and the eldest looking of
the three, the Notary Hardenbrook. All of them looked eager to get down
to business, so Max got on with it quickly.
    "So..." he began. "Tell me about the victims. It was the Widow
Winship and then Dirk Van Garret? Did they have any important relation?"

    "It is hard to say if they had any important relation, Crane,"
Baltus explained. "There is a simple eleven roofs in this town housing
eleven families, a total of thirty eight men, women, and children in
Roswell. It seems everyone has a relation to another person in some way,
whether they work for eachother or are connected by blood or marriage. I
am sure Van Garret worked for the widow many times, he was was a
blacksmith. Winship was a midwife, and she delivered both of his two
children. Business, you know. Then it seems their children played
together, but they did not socialize on a regular basis."
    Maxwell rubbed his chin. "Nothing else?"
    Baltus sighed. "I would not look for any connection, constable. I do
not think it would matter if there was a very important one. I would
worry more about what this thing is that is-"
    "Thing?" Max repeated. "You do not really suggest that..."
    "You must not know that much about how these people are dying,"
Baltus said.
    "I was told how they were found. No wounds of any kind on the
bodies."
    "We have seen more than just the bodies, constible."
    Maxwell looked at him. "What?"
    "The reverend saw the widow killed."
    Max looked toward Steinwick with his eyebrows drawn together in
confusion. "You witnessed the murder?"
    "It was the strangest thing I have ever seen or experienced,"
Steinwick explained. "I was out changing the shoes on my horse. Our
houses are not far apart so I could see her clearly outside, gardening.
We were both out until it started getting dark, and then suddenly
Johnathon Masbath appeared up on the hill a little ways away from where
me and Winship`s houses are. I knew it was him because I could see
clearly enough and I knew his voice. He was up there on his horse
calling for help with something- I can`t remember clearly what- and
Emily grabbed her lantern and started to run up the hill towards him. I
called inside for my wife to light a candle, but as she hurried to do
that I watched and saw everything that happened as soon as Emily reached
Masbath. He suddenly siezed the back of her dress and she cried out as
he pulled her up onto the horse with him, and I was far away but I was
close enough, and I could see everything from the light of Emily`s
lantern. Close enough to see him place his hand over her stomache and
hear her scream. Then the lantern dropped to the ground and shattered
and it went dark."
    Maxwell lifted his eyebrows. He hadn`t come in here expecting some
big horror story.
    The reverend continued: "I started to run over to the hill as I saw
Emily Winship`s loose body fall off the horse, and then Johnathon rode
away. When I reacked her I already knew it was too late, and sure
enough, she looked dead. I ran after Masbath but there was no sign of
him. All I saw was a mysterious glow, far off in the forest, like a big
blue light coming from some source about twenty feet off. Then it
just... dissapeared."
    Max cleared his throat. "Then... then what did you do?"
    "I ran back down into the town calling for help. I cried, 'Masbath
killed Emily Winship!' And then Johnathon`s wife came running out of her
house and she told everyone that Johnathon was at home and had been
there since noon."
    Maxwell lifted an eyebrow. By now he was very confused.
    Hardenbrook looked over at him and said, "You see, Constable Crane,
I do not believe we are dealing with anything from Earth."
    Max swallowed. "You think Van Garret and the widow were killed by
an... alien?"
    "Not just any alien."
    "They were killed by Nasedo," Baltus said. "Nasedo the
shape-shifter."
    They`ve even named it, Maxwell thought with disgust. "So, if this...
shape-shifter... tranformed into a replica of this Johnathon Masbath,
then it could turn into anyone else?"
    "Anyone he wants to," Steinwick said. "Any person in the town. In
order to kill people."
    Max covered his mouth with one hand. The others could probably tell
he was trying not to laugh. He certainly had to give these people a hand
for creativity. There was one thing he knew about all he was hearing:
there had been only three surviving aliens from the ship that crashed
here long ago, and he knew where all of them were today. What was more,
this shape-shifting business was far beyond any power he had ever had.
Absolute bull shit.
    "Is something amusing, constable?" Baltus asked.
    "No," Maxwell sat up. "I mean, no. Of course not. Now... someone
witnessed the death of Emily Winship, but is there anything known about
Van Garret`s death?"
    "Nothing," Baltus said with dissapointment. "No one knows what form
the killer may have taken to kill him. But there was a woman who claimed
she saw someone outside around the time he died, and barely anyone was
out then. She said it looked like it could have been Dirk`s wife Anne,
but she doesn`t know for sure. And his wife says she knows she was not
outside at all then. We suspect it was Nasedo taking the form of Anne
Van Garret."
    Max nodded. "Well, here is what I say to all this. About this alien
shape-shifter nonsense, I do not take any of it. The murderor is a human
from Earth. A human with lots of tricks up his sleeve, yes, but a
human."
    "You are wrong, Crane," Steinwick said. "You will see-"
    "No, reverend, you will see. All of you will. I am going to find a
human murderor and prove you wrong."

    "...And that`s why you`ll never see someone caught dead walking
under a ladder in this town," Maria said. "everyone feels like they have
to protect themselves from something, whether it`s witches or demons or
aliens, and most people turn to superstitions."
    "And you?" asked Maxwell as he wrote notes down in his ledger.
    Maria went to the night stand by the bed, opened a drawer, pulled
something out, and then went back over to the desk where he sat and
slabbed a thick bible down on the tabletop, shaking Max`s writing in his
black book. He lifted his eyebrows. "I see. And what is it, Maria,
that... that you are afraid of?"
    Maria sighed. "Sometimes I am not sure."
    "Not sure?"
    "There are many times I see very odd things here, in this place, and
they frighten me. This is not the first time that such queer and eerie
things have gone on here in Roswell. The only reason we payed attention
to it for once is because never before have people died like this."
    "What kind of odd things? Tell me."
    Her face turned thoughtful as she tried to recall details. "The
first thing that really scared me was... the piece of metal we found
where the ship supposedly crashed."
    "We?"
    "Elizabeth and I. She went with me once a couple years ago when I
rode out to gather some herbs for the Lady Van Tassel. We found this
piece of what looked like shiniest steel or metal I had ever seen. It
had this writing on it... at first I thought it was something broken off
of a memorial somewhere, and I asked Liz, 'I wonder where it came from.
What does it say?' Because of course I... never learned to read. And
then she looked at me with a confused expression and said, 'I do not
know what it says, Maria.' I did not understand until she told me she
had never seen writing like it before."
    Max took that all in and asked, "What did you do with it?"
    "Well, Miss Liz said we should take it back and she would ask her
father if he had ever seen anything like it. But when we got back Tess
was theo nly one in the house. We showed her what we had found and... it
was very odd..."
    "What?"
    "She did not seem interested until we told her which field we had
found it in. Then she suddenly acted very strangely and she wanted us to
give it to her. I do not recall the entire disscussion but in the end we
did give it to her, and then neither of us ever saw it again. So many
morbid things have happened around here like that. It is too many
occasions that I have experienced something out of place and have found
myself reaching for the cross in my pocket."
    Maxwell stopped to think about all that. Then Maria asked him, "What
about you?"
    "What about me?" Max asked.
    "What do you turn to when you are afraid? What do you have faith
in?"
    "I... cannot say."
    "Come now, you must believe in something."
    "I do not think about it."
    "What do you do when-"
    "Maria," Tessela said in the doorway. "My mother wishes for some
tea."
    "Yes, Miss, of course," Maria said graciously. "Would you care for
any, Mister Crane?"
    "Why not?" he said.
    "Very well." With that Maria went out the door, brusghing past
Tessela Van Tassel, who then went inside and sat at the desk opposite
form Max and sluggishly relaxed her elbows on the table.
    "What do you write in that?" she asked curiously.
    "Information," he answered uncomfortably. "Notes. Observations."
    "I see," Tess said, running her hands over the desktop. "And what
kind of things have you found out so far?"
    "Basically nothing," Max said in dissapointment. "I must apoligize,
Miss Tessela-"
    "Tess," she corrected.
    "...Tess. My concentration would be better when..."
    "I will leave then," she said. "Goodnight, constable."
    "Goodnight."
    She flashed him one of her too-big smiles as she got up and then
left.

    "How is the constable?" Christine Van Tassel asked Maria darkly as
the girl came in with some tea on a tray.
    "He is very well," Maria said guiltily as she came over and poured
her cup of tea. Lady Van Tassel was always dissapointed when Maria`s
socializing pulled her away from her service. "Did you want tea,
Elizabeth?"
    "No thank you," Elizabeth said from her rocking chair where she was
staring into the lit fireplace of Lady Van Tassel`s room.
    Maria smiled as she picked the tray back up and started to walk out
of the room. Then her sleeve brushed up against an inkwell on the
writing desk and knocked it off the table.
    "Damn you, Maria!" Christine shouted as raven-black ink spilled onto
the carpet. "Can you be more clumsy?"
    Maria panicked as she put the tray down and leaned over, quickly
trying to blot some of the ink up with the bottom of her dress, which of
course was pretty hopeless. Elizabeth got up as her stepmother did too,
ready to save poor Maria from her scolding. She took her mother`s cup of
tea from the desk and splashed it overthe stain, thinking maybe it would
help delute it a little before it completely soaked in. "It will be
allright, mother. We can put a rug over it, no one will ever know."
    She ignored Lizzy and kept her attention on the carpet. Elizabeth
sighed and stood back up. She noticed the lonely tray on the desk with
one more filled cup on it set aside the pot, just sitting there. Was it
for the constable?
    Maria and her stepmother barely noticed when she went over and
carefully picked up the tray.

    Maxwell heard Maria softly tap on the doorway. "Oh yes, thank you.
Just put it on the night stand, will you? So, tell me about that brute
who seems to be Miss Elizabeth`s-" Then he looked up and saw it wasn`t
the servant girl at all, but Elizabeth herself bringing in the tea. "Ah!
Forgive me, I... I... thought it was..."
    "Our servant had a little mess to clean up," Elizabeth explained.
"Ah! I see you have discovered the family bible."
    "What?"
    Liz stepped over to the desk, turned the bible toward him, and
turned open the cover so he could see the inside page with a tree on it,
signatures all over it ending in Van Tassel and other last names. "I did
not notice," Maxwell admitted.
    "What is New York like, Mister Crane?"
    "New York? It is... full of people."
    "Oh, it must be remarkable. The opera! Dancing! Is it wonderful?"
    "I`ve never been."
    "How can you stay away from it all when you live in the middle of so
much to offer?"
    "New York has nothing to offer me."
    "Then take me back with you," she said with a alughing smile. "It
sounds like heaven to me. I never loved this place."
    "So I have heard."
    "Have you? From many people I suppose, the people here seem to hold
similar opinions about Roswell. So... what do you think of your bizare
case so far, constable?"
    "I think this town is full of rediculous minds poisoned with
superstitious nonsense about ghosts and demons, worst of all rubbish
about aliens."
    Elizabeth laughed. Maxwell didn`t see anything funny. "No one is
like that in New York?"
    "Certainly not."
    "I would assume so, considering nobody ever thought that an alien
spacecraft crashed there."
    "Do you really believe that there are surviving otherworld creatures
from a ship that landed here that are now hiding in this town killing
random people?"
    "I believe anything is possible. You would too if you had grown up
in a town where the only thing that comes of another odd incident in the
forest is more and more rumors of aliens. I have gotten used to it by
now."
    If only she knew, Max thought. If only I could tell everyone the
truth about that crash that happened here. That there were no monsters
that came off that ship at all. That the only thing that the ship left
here were people just like them in every way that is important.
    Maxwell wasn`t liking this investigation at all so far. It seemed
like every ten minutessomething happened or was said that jerked
memories into his mind. Memories of his past. Of the other aliens...
    "Something bothering you, Mister Crane?" asked Elizabeth.
    "No, I just... spaced out," Maxwell explained.
    "Liz!" Tess called from down stairs. "Mother wants you!"
    "Well, I wish you a goodnight," Elizabeth said to Max.
    "Same to you, Miss," he replied.
    As Elizabeth was leaving she turned back and said, "About Kyle, that
brute has proposed to me."
    Max opened his mouth, emabarrassed, but didn`t know what to say.
    "He`s proposed to me on several occasions," Liz added, and then left
the room.

    There were lovely cream-white flowers all around them in the forest
full of magnolia trees. Other flowers added color everywhere. It was
plainly a perfect day.
    A nine-year-old Maxwell Crane laughed as his sister plucked off
flower petals and dropped them down onto his face from the tree she was
sitting in. Birds sang everywhere. Butterflies fluttered around the
flowers.
    Isabel dropped to the ground and lay down in the grass. Her shining
golden-blond hair blanketed the grass around her face. Her deep brown
eyes sucked Max in. The sun made them glisten. She was so lovely, so
innocent, so sweet, like an angel.
    Suddenly Max`s eyes hurt as he was sitting by the fireplace, the
flames glowing and heating his bare face. Isabel wore  perfect,
beautiful smile as she took the stick she had and drew little pictures
and shapes in the ashes of the fireplace. A flower. A tree. The shapes
of little flying birds. And then...
    The smybol. She drew in a swired together, strange symbol. It seemed
to burn Max`s eyes, burn into his mind, his memory. He knew this. He
could have drawn it if she never had. She knew this too. Like it had
been there all along, she just had to take it out and put it into a
real, touchable form.
    Then a crow cawed. Isabel`s smile faded. Her beautiful eyes grew
fearful, afraid, as the shadow of the crows wings passed over her. Her
face pleaded everything to Max without her even saying it aloud: don`t
let him get me. Don`t let him get me, Max.
    And then he suddenly felt watched. Eyes, somewhere, the crow. Eyes,
somewhere, he felt them. Those eyes. His father...
    "Ah!" Max flew up in his bed with a gasp.
    He stared into the pitch black room for a while and then got up and
then got up out of bed to light a candle. Then he saw, coming from the
hallway, some other source of light...
    Max walked out into the hallway. It was the fireplace in another
room down the hall. He could hear the flames crackling. He went farther
down and peeked into the room to see Elizabeth sitting in front of the
lit fire with a book in her lap.
    "Pardon me," he apoligized. "I saw the light..."
    "No offence taken," Elizabeth confirmed, standing up. "Forgive me if
I woke you. I come in here when I cannot sleep."
    "No, you did not wake me. You are not the only one who cannot
sleep."
    Liz nodded. "What do you read?" Maxwell asked her.
    "Oh." Elizabeth handed him the book she had. "Ulysses. I have read
it several times."
    "Yes," Max said, flipping through the book. "I knew someone once who
enjoyed it very much too."
    He opened to a random page and read a paragraph:
    "Ite wass a roade nott taken
    Nott sceen
    Nott riden
    And yete amongste the ambir glowe
    Thouseste yung man founde the roade
    Ande hey took ite, with-"
    "Lovely." Max snapped the book shut and handed it to her. "You
have... lots of books."
    "Yes," Elizabeth said with a smile as he went over to the shelf of
books in the room and looked through random ones. "My family has quite a
collection."
    "Everyone has this many in New York."
    "Really? It must be wonderful. People cherish every one they get
their hands on out here. When I was a little girl I remember I would
love any storybook full of pictures I got, which was a rarity."
    "Yes, they must be hard to get in Roswell."
    Elizabeth sat down in the lovely light green sofa in the middle of
the room and hugged her lacy blue robe over the gown she slept in. It
was pretty cold in there, so Maxwell sat down next to her to get as
close to the fireplace as possible. He asked her, "Does your
stepsister... Tessela, read as well?"
    Elizabeth frowned. "Tess is a very different kind of girl than me"
was all she said as a reply.
    "That is easy to tell," Max said. "She is not much like her mother
either."
    "She is cruel to the servant like her mother." Again she didn`t say
anything else than that. It just sort of implied that the girl was hard
like her mother, but nothign else. Then she added with a laughing smile,
"Sometimes I think Tess is not related to my stepmother any more than I
am."
    Max laughed. "Is everyone but you like that to the servant girl?"
    Elizabeth smiled. "Maria and I are like bosom friends. Sometimes I
let myself grieve over the thought that she deserves a better life than
this. It is foolish of me."
    "No, it is not foolish," Max insisted. "The girl is a... vibrant
young woman. So thoughtful and alive... it is no wonder you have
befriended eachother."
    Lizzy smiled. Then she turned to the table beside the sofa and drew
a drawer open and took something green and shiny out. "My stepmother
wishes me to give this to you."
    "What is it?"
    "She found it in the field where the ship supposedly crashed. It is
protection against harm."
     She held it out and Max took it into his hands. It was a hard,
shiny green book with a plain, silver symbol on the cover. Maxwell
shuddered. Something about it made him edgy. "I see no use for it."
    "Take it. You might need it."
     Maxwell noticed for the first time the deep, hypnotizing brown of
her eye color. Like rich cocoa. Her eyes glistened when she smiled. Just
like Isabel`s, he thought.
    Max closed his eyes and shook his head. "Are you all right?"
Elizabeth asked him with concern.
    "Fine," he answered quickly. "I will be fine."
    She smiled. "People who dare to go there find things in that field
all the time. Rarely something quite as interesting as that, but many
things. I used to play there with Maria when she was sent to go gather
something, until my father found out and forbade us there."
    "Why?"
    "For the same reason no one dares step foot outside on the night the
ship was said to land. For unsaid reasons people just sense but never
say aloud." Then she smiled. "But Maria and I did not care."
    "You risked anything you might find."
    "Yes." She crossed her leg over the other and clasped her fingers
together over one knee. "Would you like to see it?"
    Maxwell considered. He couldn`t imagine a reason he would want to
set foor on those grounds again at all. But a ride through it with her
seemed like something too pleasant to turn down.
    "Yes."

    The Van Tassels were letting Maxwell use one of their horses during
his stay in Roswell. His name was Gunpowder, and he was the slowest
little bastard Max could ever imagine.
    "Try pulling back on the reigns more as you move," Elizabeth called
back to him, who was now at least twenty feet ahead of him.
    "I tried that," Maxwell called back, sounding incredibly
dissapointed by now.
    "He is not usually like this."
    "Are you sure?"
    They had gotten out of the foresty area and were now out in a long
stretch of grass and dirt. Is this what they call a field? he found
himself wondering more than once. Maxwell would have liked it better out
here, the forest being too creepy in a way he couldn`t really touch, if
it weren`t for the way that this open area was somehow even worse. No
color. It was just sort of... gray. Everywhere. And there were barely
and birds at all, making it too quiet.
    "There," Elizabeth shouted back at him, pointing out at a
specifically baren and specifically darkened area out in front of them.
"Out there is where it landed."
    "How do you know how to find it?" Max asked, sliding off of
Gunpowder and grabbing his reigns to walk him around.
    "I use that landmark." Elizabeth pointed to a cobblestone structure
a little way`s away with a small, dead-looking tree by it. Max hadn`t
noticed it yet. It looked like an old thing that once was a cottage.
"Come see," Elizabeth said. "I used to play here all the time as a
little girl."
    Max went over to her horse to help her off. He held out his hands
and she put hers on them as she slid off of her horse, Marigold. Lizzy
looked down as they held eachother`s hands and opened his fingers out.
"What strange scars," she said. "They look like burns. How did you get
them?"
    "I`ve forgotten," Max dissmissed. "I assume I got them at a young
age."
    They made their way over to it together. There was sand and ashes
all over inside the structure. Like it had been used once for building
fires. The odd thing was the thing looked familiar to him, somehow...
    He remembered running. Running with Isabel. With Michael. Passing
the cottage. Someone came out of the little house. They ran away from
him...
    "No one is sure who built this, or what ruined it," Elizabeth said
with a shrug. "Many people say it was a witch who had lived alone out
here after she was driven out of her town."
    Liz was rubbing the end of her foot around in the ashes, making
little lines on the ground. She curved her toe around in circles,
drawing a large spiral around in the ashes in front of her feet.
    Maxwell looked down at it and shuddered. His eyes locked on it for
just a moment, and then flashes went through his mind... the symbol...
the spiraling symbol in the fireplace...
    He turned away suddenly, suddenly feeling like he would be sick, and
leaned one hand against the trunk of the tree by the little house.
Elizabeth looked up and asked him, "Is there something wrong?"
    "No, thank you," Maxwell answered. He then heard a whiny caw. He
looked up into the tree and saw an angry-looking crow perched in it. He
felt his stomache churn. The crow... he remembered that horrible feeling
of being watched, being helpless, feeling the eyes on him from
somewhere. He remembered the shadow of the crow`s wings...
    "Carelful. You know what they say," Elizabeth said as she approached
him from behind. "If you look into a crow`s eyes for too long it can
steal your soul."
    It already has, Max thought sadly. "I do not think fondly of the way
superstition picks out random innocent animals and decides to consider
them evil on all accounts."
    Elizabeth laughed. "You are so funny that way."
    Max`s eyes narrowed. He didn`t get it.
    "Not all things about crows are considered evil," Liz pointed out.
"When a fever is upon someone in the town, very often somebody will boil
a crow`s foot in water mixed with herbs and a lock of white horse hair
as a mixture to cure the ailment. Usually the fever lifts within two
days."
    "Try the herbs without the rest next time and see how that works,"
Maxwell commented blandly. Liz smiled laughingly but didn`t say
anything.
    Together they walked along the field as Elizabeth told him all about
it. "Some people say there are hundreds of things to find out here,"
Elizabeth explained. "People just keep finding things to pick up."
    "Does anyone know the exact place where the ship supposedly
crashed?" Max asked.
    "It used to be easy to tell where it may have been. There were
grooves and indentations everywhere. But the rain has changed that. Now
it is hard to tell any possible ship depris markings from something
completely natural."
    "Things should have been carefully noted immediately after the time
it crashed."
    Elizabeth shook her head. "Oh no, no one would come near here that
shortly after the crash. Most people had trouble stepping foot out into
the woods."
    "Why is everyone so afraid of aliens?" Maxwell blew out.
    Elizabeth looked confused. "How could they not be?"
     If only they knew how rediculous this all sounds to me, he thought.
"Why should people be so scared of something not from around here?"
    "Well, because of what is going on here right now." Liz went over to
Marigold and mounted onto her saddle.
    "But what about before now?" Max asked, going over to Gunpowder.
"Maria told me nothing like this has ever happened before. So why in the
name of God do the people here go around with thick, heavy bibles
chained against their hearts in fear of species from another planet?"
    He shoved himself up onto Gunpowder`s back as Marigold galloped over
to his side. Lizzy looked at him with a heavy sigh. "I am not afraid of
aliens. I am afraid of the shape-shifter."
    They both trotted back off into the woods on their horses, saying
little more. Once they were almost back in town it was almost dark, and
they suddenly heard a scream.
    "Elaine! The shape-shifter took Elaine!!!"
    Elizabeth and Maxwell took one look at eachother and then charged
heir horses as fast as they could go into the town.

    "Elaine Reinbrook is her name?" Maxwell asked, peering over the limp
female body.
    A plainly dressed woman that Max guessed to be someone of some kind
of relation to Reinbrook was crying into a kerchief with her husband`s
arm heavied over her shoulders. "Yes," the woman said. "She was my
cousin. I was at her house and I heard a female voice call for her when
she went outside, and then she was gone for five minutes when I heard a
scream and... I found her like this right here."
    "Someone called to her you say?" Max asked. "Did it sound like
anyone?"
    "What do you mean?"
    "Think. Did it seem like you knew the voice when you heard it?"
    "It... it seems like it could have sounded like her sister, Meaghan
here. But she did not call to Elaine at all today."
    Max turned to Meaghan. "You are Reinbrook`s sister?"
    She nodded. "And you did not call for Elaine at all?"
    She sniffled like all the other women around crying their guts out.
Max felt guilty asking all these questions right now. "No."
    Maxwell sighed. "I think I will have to ask around and find out if
anyone called Elaine Reinbrook`s name at any time today. If not, I am
now not sure whether this murderor is male or female at all."
    "It does not matter what it is if it can change itself!" someone
from the croud said. Max fought the strong urge to roll his eyes. He
just ignored it.
    Max looked down at the woman`s dead body. She was sprawled out
stomache down with her head turned to one side. He leaned over and
carefully lifted up the neck of her dress to look at her back. There had
been no visible wounds at all on both victims so far, and he doubted
there would be any this time either, but just in case...
    Then he noticed that two of the bottons down the back of Reinbrook`s
dress were unbuttoned. In fact, one of the bottons was ripped off,
leaving a tuft of spilt up string where it had been fastened and a wide
gap bearing the skin on her back. Max leaned over to look at her back
more closely as he pulled the opening in between those two buttons apart
more.
    His eyes opened wide. There on the back of Elaine Reinbrook`s waist
was a shining silver handprint.


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