"Spirit of Sleepy Hollow on All Hallows Eve" (short story) Part 3 of 4

A uniformed employee walked up to Caitlin and asked, “May I show you to your table Miss Vanderende?”

“I have a table?”

“Of course; all of our guests are assigned a place here.”

“Then I’ll follow you,” she said, avoiding the many curious eyes turned her way as she followed him through the room.

The table he walked her to had one available seat and the people seated aound it were in their vintage best, and staring at her with open speculation.

The hotel employee pulled out her chair but before she sat down she whispered to him, “Could you bring me a glass of wine? I don’t care if it’s red or white, just so it’s large, very large.”

“Of course,” he nodded and walked away.

“Hi. I’m Caitlyn,” she offered with a smile directed at the stoic faces, but only the woman to her right returned it.

“Yes, we know.” The woman said with a side look to the man on her right.

Caitlyn frowned. “You know? How would you know?”

“Assigned seats,” the man seated next to the woman answered, “I am Pieter Dekker and this is my wife Beatrix.

“Nice to meet you both…?” Caitlyn said it as a question, because she wasn’t sure it was.

Beatrix was eyeing her from head to toe, so Caitlyn addressed the obvious elephant in the room. “Yes, I know I’m not in costume but I wasn’t supposed to be here tonight. There was a detour on the road I was driving on and…anyway, I didn’t know a costume was mandatory.”

“Nonsense; we would not have expected you to be prepared to be here, none of our guests of honor ever are,” Beatrix informed and the others at the table mumbled some sort of agreement.

“Guest of honor…?” Caitlyn repeated, with a cynical grimace,” I wasn’t even supposed to be here, how can I be the guest of honor?”

Beatrix gave her a sight smile and avoided the question. “Allow me to introduce you to everyone. James Paulding and his wife Anna,” she said indicating the couple on Caitlyn’s left, “And Eliza Picard and her daughter Alice,” she said, indicating the two women seated across from Caitlyn.

“Nice to meet all of you,” Caitlyn said, with a forced smile still trying to digest that ‘guest of honor’ tidbit. It made no sense. Unless the guest of honor was picked solely for being the last one to arrive, or to arrive without a costume, either seemed a reasonable conclusion.

The waiter brought her requested glass of wine but she didn’t let him put it down. She took it from his hand and downed half of it then held onto it like a lifeline. Several waiters walked into the room with heavy laden trays of steaming bowls of consume and began placing them in front of the guests at each table.

“I understand if you’re feeling uncomfortable,” James Paulding whispered to her.
”You do?” Caitlyn turned to him.

“Of course, crossing over can be most disorienting,” he explained then directed his attention down to the steaming soup that had just been placed in front of him.

“Do you mean… crossing over that covered bridge? Because yes, that was disorienting,” Caitlyn agreed before she took a small spoon full of the clear broth and followed it with several more. It was delicious but with her attention on her soup, she missed the sharp looks shared by the occupants of her table.

The waiters cleared the empty soup bowls from the table and Beatrix touched her hand to gain her attention. When Caitlyn looked at her, Beatrix took the initiative to explain the situation to their newest guest. “We host this gathering every year.”

“Oh…that’s nice. So are most of you neighbors from the town?” Caitlyn asked.

“More or less, but we do gather on this exact day each year in order to allow one particular villager to leave it.”

Caitlyn had no idea what Beatrix meant by that but she smiled politely and nodded.

Pieter cleared his throat and Caitlyn looked at him and at the same time she became aware of the pin drop quiet in the room, and noticed everyone was looking at her again.

“This is a rare day in our year,” Pieter told her.

“And I can see you go all out in a grand way to capture the Halloween spirit,” Caitlyn said, hoping they’d be pleased by the compliment on their decorating and costume skills.

“That is not quite what I’d meant…you see, for us, this is the only night we can enjoy with a sense of peace. This year, we can thank you for that peace and that is why you are our guest of honor,” Pieter explained with a smile of gratitude.

“Huh? What would I have to do with it?”

Beatrix gave the others at the table a look of resignation before turning to their guest with sympathetic eyes. “I’ll try to explain…when the one who leaves the village exits, one must be brought here to fill that space. It is for counterbalance or ballast if you will, but I’m sure my husband can explain it better; he is a captain.”

“I am not a captain my dear, but I have sailed on many a sea,” Pieter corrected his wife before continuing to explain, “Ballast, is used to stabilize a craft and the same holds true in a time fission. In order to move one through it, we must have one come through it, so it remains stable. Do you understand?”

“Not at all, but if it’s part of some larger Halloween play acting, I’ll say I do, unless…you’re all just crazy,” she offered the last with a chuckle.

“Hardly, though yours is the same response we hear, every year, from our guest. Isn’t that true dear?” Beatrix said to her husband with an exasperated sigh.

Pieter nodded. “It is true. We’ve tried to condense the explanatio for the guest to better digest it, but it is not an easy task to convince the displaced where they are.”

“The displaced?” Caitlyn asked, wondering where this strange Halloween night had led her to and where this odd conversation was going.

The waiters returned to the room at that moment with trays laden now with steaming plates of something with an amazing aroma. The conversation halted as dinner was placed before each guest. The dinner plate held a succulent cut of roasted beef in mushroom gravy, surrounded by fresh root vegetables in a buttered sauce.

The quiet remained during their meal, but the ricocheting glances among all the guests, except Caitlyn, grew more troubled by the minute.

Caitlyn finished her meal and her wine and felt tired, ready for sleep. it was time to go back to her room.

She placed her napkin on the table and smiled. “It’s been a pleasure meeting all of you but I have to be up early tomorrow so I must say goodnight." She picked up her purse from the side of her chair and stood up.

She walked across the room aware of the silence and aware that all eyes followed her, but this time she could ignore it becasue she was leaving not entering this room.

Caitlyn stepped to the double doors and since there was no hotel employee waiting there to open them for her, tugged the door handle herself. It didn’t budge. She frowned and tried the second door’s handle, it didn’t budge either. Had they locked them inside this room? Why?

Caitlyn knocked on the door lightly but there was no response from the other side so she knocked harder. When no one opened the door. She turned around and found, of course, everyone was openly watching her.

She frowned at them and asked the obvious. “Why is the door locked? Why can’t I leave?”

The two married couples and the mother and daughter from her table all got up and walked over to her.

“What’s going on here?” Caitlyn asked Pieter, who was the first to reach her.

“You can’t leave, not until you understand the situation.”

“Which is?”

He sighed. “When one of ours leaps into your space, someone from your space must come into ours. It’s for balance, remember.”

“So, what is it you want me to do, am I supposed to pretend I’m not in 2023?” She asked with a nervous laugh, thinking this hotel and its guests had a strange commitment to Halloween but this play acting was getting a bit out of hand. Then she heard “2023,” echoing through the room and felt chills race up her spine. Eliza was staring at her as if she were a Martian.

“That is the farthest date as yet for one of our guests,” Eliza whispered and her daughter Alice nodded in agreement.

Caitlin smirked. “If this is a scripted Halloween Theme night for all of you then you’ll need a script revision, because I can’t be in it and I can''t stay through ending. But you’re all excellent character actors and I give you credit for originality and set design, it’s impressive. Look, I’ve had a long day and I’d like to go to bed so please have them open this door,” Caitlyn asked as graciously as she could.

The room grew even quieter. Caitlyn’s awareness of the depth of the quiet caused her to shiver; it felt foreboding. “What’s going on here? Why won’t you let me leave?” She questioned in a quivering voice.

“This is not a script Caitlyn; you are no longer in 2023. You are the displaced one,” James told her with a serious, very serious expression.

 “I’m the displaced one?” She squeaked as her stomach quivered, about to give up the delicious soup and dinner.

“Yes, you are,” Beatrix said kindly.

“If I’m taking someone’s place in this themed Halloween dinner because they left, can’t you get them to come back and take their place in…whatever this is, and let me go?”

“No!”

The answer was swift and came from every attending person in the room.

Caitlyn froze at the vehemence and understood the person missing must not be loved but she didn’t care. She needed to get out of here. “Look, I’m sorry if you don’t like this person but-”

“It’s the horseman my dear, of course we don’t like him. He is a bother to us all year long,” Beatrix told her with a deep frown of annoyance.

“But on this one night we are rid of him,” Pieter added and placed his arm around his wife for comfort.

Caitlyn gave them a worried glance then looked around the room and realized, maybe they were all crazy.

The other guests began to stand up and leave their tables, and walk towards her. They all gathered around her and Caitlyn’s heart squeezed with fear but she decided it might be best to humor them, until she could figure out a way out of here.

“Okay. You want me to pretend the headless horseman is roaming in 2023?”

“We care not where he roams, we wait all year to be rid of him!” One of the guests shouted to her, and that opinion was supported by all in the room with a resounding cheer.

This was the oddest Halloween dinner, or twisted dinner with spooky story line, she’d ever attended, and she wanted it to end! She gave them what she hoped was an understanding smile. “Look, I don’t want to make any of you break character, but I can’t stay and pretend this is real. So please, open the door…please,” she pleaded, hoping they’d understand.

“This is real; the horseman pursues us relentlessly, even though our fates have already been sealed. He does not rest,” Pieter insisted.

“Is it any wonder, we would relish this one day a year to be rid of him?” Beatrix added.

“We’ve been trapped with him since demise, a most unfortunate fate,” James told her, and his wife Anna nodded briskly.

Caitlyn again gave them credit for their commitment to character and until that door opened, she’d pacify them. “Is everyone in this room playing his victim then?” Caitlyn asked.

“Not victims by his hand, by the legend; fear causes one to act in haste. On sight, some fled into the path of horses, others into waters too high to swim and some just keeled over at the sight of him with failing hearts.”

“Got it. You’re all victims of the legend, not the horseman. Okay, if I promise to play along as the displaced one, when exactly can I get replaced?”

“Replaced?”

“When can I leave…when will my character return to 2023, is it after dessert that the door swings open?”

“Well that part is as it has always been, at the stroke of midnight when he returns,” Pieter told her.

Caitlyn laughed at the typical ‘all things end at midnight’ allegory, but the sober faces around her didn’t soften.

“I get that you’ve written this out as is, but I can’t stay till midnight. Can’t we speed it up a bit?” she asked.

Just then, somewhere in the hotel, a clock chimed eleven times and all the guests froze at the sound with worried expressions.

“How is it eleven?” Caitlyn wondered out loud, "I only came in here an hour ago and that was at eight. Did one of you move the clock hands?”

Beatrix turned to her with fear filled eyes. “You do not have anymore time my dear.”

“You must go.” James insisted.

“That’s what I’ve wanted to do. So will you open the door?” Caitlyn asked.

The double doors swung open but they didn’t lead into the hotel lobby anymore. They’d opened up onto a courtyard and in the courtyard stood the carriage with horses, and the driver, Wilbur, from her earlier travel here, was standing next to it.

“How did you do that? These doors went out to the lobby...how…?” Her bewildered question was ignored by the now frantic guests.

“You must get back into the carriage, you do not have much time to escape,” Pieter said.

“Escape…I only want to escape to my room. Where’s the lobby?”

“You have one hour to drive back over the bridge, past the church and out of the cemetery before midnight, or you will never go back to your time,” James warned her.

Caitlyn stared at him. She couldn’t imagine how they’d pulled off the illusion with the doors and the courtyard being where the lobby should be, it was fantastic, a grand illusion, but she had no time to play long. “I wish I could see where this goes, it’s a worthy Halloween thriller, but I can’t. Now which way is the lobby?” 

Beatrix looked at her husband and shook her head. “If she does not leave now, I fear we will have another with us for eternity.”

Pieter gave Caitlyn a somber look. “It is your decision of course, but if I had a chance to leave, I would take it. The carriage awaits you and you must go, now.” He pointed to the carriage and team of horses.

“It is your only escape and you must act, now!” Eliza added her warning and shoved Caitlyn towards the open doors.

“Fine, okay I’ll go. I’m sure the carriage can take me back to the front of the hotel and then this play ends, right?”

“Only if you hurry,” Pieter warned.

“And get past the bridge and out of the cemetery before the last stroke of midnight,” James told her and the entire room of guests agreed with him. Their voices united, telling her to go.

“Go!”

Caitlyn felt a jolt of fear at the unified sound and had to admit, it was an effective bit of theatrics.

The bellhop from earlier appeared at her side with her suitcase and she frowned at him. “I’ll be back. I’m staying the night.”

He placed her bag next to her and turned away without a word.

“You have to go,” Pieter reiterated and picked up her bag as the others crowded around her and practically pushed her out of the open doors and into the courtyard.

“Fine, I’m going. It’s been a strange experience meeting all of you and if I see any of you at breakfast, I hope we can have a normal conversation,” she told them then turned to the driver of the coach. “Feels like deja vu, huh Wilbur?” She joked.

Wilbur’s grim expression didn’t crack a smile. He opened the carriage door for her to step inside and he placed her travel bag back on top of the carriage.

“One more thing,” Pieter said as she stepped into the carriage.

“What now?” She asked as she sat down in the plush seat of the carriage.

Pieter leaned into the open carriage door. “He will try to stop you from succeeding. You must stay alert.”

“Got it. There will be a costumed dude out there dressed as the horseman who will jump out and scare me, right?”

Pieter’s expression turned ghostly white. “Let us hope you do not get scared and…that you keep your head.” He closed the carriage door and stepped away.

The coach lurch forward and Caitlyn was thrown back into the seat and, even though she knew it was all a Halloween play of some sort, she began to tremble.

 

link to all parts: https://www.abctales.com/collection/spirit-sleepy-hollow-all-hallows-eve...