Page 21 of Saved By the Headless Horseman
“Yes,” the Headless Horseman snarls.
The fog swirls around them, coating Krane’s corpse in mist.The moon above changes into a golden sun before shifting back into a pale waning moon.This is it.Now she will finally understand what her betrayal has wrought.
Releasing her sobbing body, Scarlett falls to the floor with a thud.She wastes no time in rising and rushing over towards Krane.The fog wraps around both of them.Her chest shakes with the force of her cries.Throwing herself down atop him, she wails into his bloodied shirt.Gripping the fabric until her fingers turn white, she says something to him that the Headless Horseman cannot hear.More lies, he is certain.
With a wave of his hand, Krane’s corpse is snatched out from underneath her.Falling onto her knees, she screams, reaching into the mist, his body disappeared into.Whipping around, fire burns in her pale blue eyes.With an unbridled scream, she reaches under her dress and unsheathes a small dagger.What damage she thinks she can inflict with that, he is not sure, but she rushes toward him with the blade extended all the same.
Her pale fingers find his coat, ripping it open to expose where his heart should be.
“Let him go!Let him go!”
The dagger looms closer to the gray skin of his chest, but he thwarts her attempts easily.Bracketing her delicate wrist, he stays the weapon in her hand.He whirls her around so that she can witness the final act of the show—the last memory he has—the one that will bring all of this together.
Inside the fog, Krane’s corpse rests broken on the ground.A deep rumbling shakes the ground beneath their feet.Large cracks begin to form, spilling tendrils of glowing green fire.Krane’s body slithers down into an opening, a fresh flame spitting out in his wake.Scarlett screams again, pushing against her captor.
From the broken earth, two figures emerge—one a midnight-colored steed, with glowing red eyes and sharp teeth.The next is a solitary pumpkin, large and ripe.From the flames, Krane’s body is lifted by strong tendrils of fire.It holds him high as the flames consume him.They flow into his body, reknitting bone and sealing broken skin.
Their magic lengthens his limbs and strengthens his chest.Pale skin gives way to a dark gray.His severed head is given to the pumpkin.Fire encases them both until one is ash, and the pumpkin is carved with large eyes and a mouth opening.The gourd is then slammed onto his shoulders.The eyes and mouth stretch as green flames spill from within.
The creature levels a stare at her, allowing her to take in his foreboding form.Scarlett sucks in a breath, her eyes wide with disbelief.The creature mounts his steed and rides off into the fog, green flames burning away the last of the mist.
She turns in his arms.The Headless Horseman growls down into her face.
“Confess,” he spits.
It has all been revealed now.The moment of his creation has unfolded.She has no choice but to own her part in all of it now.This is what befell the lover she so callously dismissed.If only she had spoken to him truthfully, he would’ve been alive.She had sought the coward's way out through her note.His death was on her hands for the part that she played—another plaything to a powerful family—discarded once they became bored.
The Headless Horseman expects her to deny it.She will downplay whatever role she had in the hopes of sparing herself.He wills her to come clean so that he might end this.The rage he feels pumps thickly through his veins.Her confession will seal her fate and set her free.
She never loved him.He has to hear her say it.Once he has her confession, this first part of his revenge will be complete.The others still left will suffer too, only not as elaborately as her.They may have driven their blades into him, but she had broken his heart.The vows of eternity they swore meant nothing to her, and that is why her punishment would be greater than theirs.
They may have killed him, but what she did hurt for more than any sword could.
He had spent a month replaying the years they spent together.Each solitary moment spent in the darkness fueled his anger.Each whispered confession, every vow swam in his mind with new clarity.All of them point to the same conclusion.
She had never loved him.She had never loved him.She?—
Her confession never comes.Her struggling ceases as she stares up at him, almost like she is in a dream.Tears collect in the corners of her eyes, but they do not fall.
“Krane?”
Her voice is as soft as summer rain.With trembling hands, she peels back his coat.There, etched onto his gray skin, is his pale heart-shaped birthmark.Scarlett gasps.
“Krane,” she repeats.“It’s you.”
12
SCARLETT
Krane is alive.
The reality of those words shocks me to my core.He is alive, and he is the Headless Horseman.How can that be?Why has this all happened?Confusion flows through me.I am a mess of conflicting emotions, but one outweighs them all.Happiness.
Krane isalive—my Krane.
It all seems so obvious now.The familiarity in the Headless Horseman’s touch.How part of me knew him even if I didn’t know how.I can see it all now—feel it too—his familiar heartbeat pounds against my flattened palm.The soft brush of his soul against mine as we stare at each other is a feeling I know all too well.
So what if he has a pumpkin for a head?I love him just the same.I’d recognize him in any form.
