Experience Writing Halloween Flash Fiction Prompt: Jack-O-Lantern

There was a rumor, just a story, that Brom Bones scared Ichabod Crane out of Sleepy Hollow because the fair Katrina Van Tassel wanted Brom Bones to get off the dime and marry her already.

So Katrina, it is said, used Ichabod as a pawn and convinced Brom that Ichabod was a rival for her affections.

Consumed with rage, Brom dressed up as the Headless Horseman and chased Ichabod out of Sleepy Hollow. In fact, Brom Bones as the Headless Horseman chased him with such fury that Ichabod (it is said) is probably still riding his horse in a blind panic.

I spent last weekend watching The Murder Channel, so as I considered this case I went off the rails and came up with a plot for murder:

At the center of this story is an heiress, Katrina Van Tassel.

Now, we know these rich girls are used to getting their way. When Brom—who was quite the ladies’ man—kept toying with Katrina’s affections, she decided at some point that something about her situation had to be done.

She wanted that ring on her finger, she wanted babies, and she wanted what she wanted YESTERDAY.

Brom wanted her affection, but in all probability, he wanted her sizeable inheritance even more.

Katrina came up with a plan. She began to lavish affection and attention on the new guy in town: one Ichabod Crane. A slightly bookish, not terribly handsome or adventurous gentleman who was the town’s new Schoolmaster.

When Brom thought there was the possibility that Katrina could end up becoming “Mrs. Crane,” his blood boiled and then it spilled over.

It’s believed that he dressed up as the Headless Horseman and chased Ichabod out of town, and Ichabod was never seen or heard of again.

The Headless Horseman still haunts Sleepy Hollow, and that’s a fact.

But I’m wondering now: who is the Headless Horseman that haunts Sleepy Hollow? The legend says he was a Hessian trooper who got his head blown off by a cannonball and rides in search of his missing head.

It’s a good story, but maybe the facts could take us somewhere else.

Ichabod’s whereabouts after the incident on the bridge are a mystery. Townspeople claim he went on to live a quiet life in another town, Katrina never had much to say and Brom Bones just walked around town with a smug look on his face.

All we know for sure is that Ichabod, an outsider came between the town Heiress, her beau who was a local guy and one day he was chased off the face of the Earth by a Demonic figure in search of his missing head.

I think that maybe- just maybe if there is a ghostly figure who rides the roads of Sleepy Hallow, it’s not a Solidier whose head was blown off by a canon ball.

Maybe that figure is a bookish looking man with a broken neck, terror etched onhis face, looking for a grave to call his own.