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Before—Josselyn Shaw
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Fuck this place, Josselyn thought as she toted a six-pack of beer from the rundown gas station in her shitty town. Tonight was different than any other night—she was going to drown her sorrows away, alone in her apartment.
Josselyn’s “best friend” Emma had stood her up earlier, even though Emma had known how much Josselyn needed her. Josselyn’s ex-boyfriend broke up with her the night before because he said they were too different. Yeah, but not too different to have sex with her before he’d told her that. Fucking asshole.
Screw him and screw Emma. She didn’t need anyone except herself and the beautiful pack of beer hanging in her hand. The clinking of the bottles was practically chanting her name, so she pulled one out before climbing into the driver’s seat.
The engine purred to life after she used her keychain to pop the lid on the beer. She knew she shouldn’t be drinking, but she didn’t give one single shit. Josselyn brought the tip to her mouth and took a swig, humming along with the car as the coolness slid down her throat and drifted to her stomach.
“Where to now, Josselyn?” she asked herself, peering out the window at the little bit of daylight that was left.
“Time to get this party started,” she answered, revving the car and swerving violently from the parking lot.
Josselyn continued taking swigs from her beer as she turned left on Oak Street, almost finished with beer number one, when she slammed hard on the brakes. A building, a rather big building rising high from the shadows of tall trees, had caught her attention. The structure had never been anywhere on Oak Street before, and it was out of place in a town like hers.
She shouldn’t be buzzing from her first beer already. At least, she didn’t think she should be—drinking had never been her thing, until tonight. Reckless just so happened to be her new middle name.
Josselyn put the car in park and stepped out, bringing her almost full pack of beer with her. She cracked open another bottle and took a long drink as she approached the building.
It wasn’t the aged stones around the base of the building or lack of windows that drew her focus, but rather the door. It was large enough for an elephant to fit through.
“Okay, that’s an enormous door,” Josselyn said. She nearly dropped her beer when it suddenly flew open, her heart pounding.
A young blond guy emerged from inside, halting when his green gaze settled on hers.
“Need something?” he asked as he pulled the door shut behind him.
“Um, no?” Josselyn furrowed her brow. “Well, maybe. Has this place always been here?”
Though she’d only taken this route a couple times, she had never noticed a building at any point. It was quite possible she couldn’t remember or just hadn’t paid much attention. I would’ve remembered a building like this though, right? There would’ve been people talking about something like this coming to Deer Park.
The guy’s gaze stayed locked on hers, and a smile tugged at his lips. “Yeah, we recently cut the trees surrounding the building to make it noticeable for customers.”
Josselyn’s eyes darted back and forth between the guy and the stone of the building, curiosity blooming inside her. “What is it?”
“It’s a museum with glass statues displayed in different artistic ways. We are currently closed, but you can check it out if you want.” The blond guy pointed toward the door with a large grin spread across his face.
Maybe it was the beer, but Josselyn felt her curiosity grow into excitement at seeing something so unique. She definitely wanted to go inside and take a look. Running her hand through her short blonde hair, she said, “If it’s okay with you, I will.”
The guy opened the door for Josselyn, ushering her in with a wave of his hand. Butterflies danced in her stomach when she took her first steps forward. The idea of being alone inside a museum was both creepy and electrifying.
“Take your time,” he purred after her as the door closed. Josselyn stared at the wood and golden knob, not knowing what to think.
“What a weirdo.” Slowly, she turned around and peered down a long hallway. Clutching the bottles close to her side, she took another deep drink of the bottle in her other hand.
She walked down the long entrance, which led to another hall, which led to another before she froze. Displays were everywhere, aligned in a circular fashion from her left, looping all the way around to her right.
“Now the party can officially start.”
Josselyn stepped to her right, passing several fairy-tale displays where the statues weren’t in a very fairytale-like state. She stopped in front of one with a large bridge—three grotesque trolls sat underneath it, and a goat broken into small glass pieces rested on top of the arch. The precision in the glasswork was almost life-like. She shivered, the scene leaving her impressed and shaken at the same time.
The second beer bottle emptied, and she cracked open number three as she passed by the next display. She stopped in front of it, surprised by the description: Jack the Ripper. The longer she looked at it, the colder she became, so she hurried on.
The next glass scene displayed a large sign with the words Sleepy Hollow written across it. I love that movie and book.
She was about to take a drink when something tugged at her legs. Frowning, she looked down, but nothing was there. Just as she chalked it up to her imagination, it pulled at her again—harder this time, and strong enough to knock the beers out of her hands. They crashed to the marble floor, shattering on impact. Her heart slammed inside her chest, and her body trembled as she glanced around the empty room.
The invisible wind pulled one more time and her feet dragged across the floor while she screamed. Josselyn then smacked to the marble, falling into the cool liquid and shards of broken beer bottles. She screamed louder and clawed at nothing, crying out for help. With one final pull, she was yanked into the display.
Once the tugging stopped and the wind dissipated, Josselyn jumped to her feet and hauled ass. She didn’t get far as she struck a wall and fell back, landing on the ground with a hard slam. Josselyn rubbed the sore spots on her ass when she realized it wasn’t a wall she’d hit. There wasn’t anything there to block her way, yet she couldn’t walk through it. Instead of something solid, she stared out at grass and trees. She shouldn’t have been seeing grass and trees—she should’ve been seeing displays and glass statues.
“Where the fuck am I?” she shouted, running as hard as she could at the invisible barrier. It shot her backward. With each try, she rebounded harder.
Josselyn fell once again and rolled onto all fours with a deep breath. Blonde hair spilled over her shoulders and she pushed it away, annoyed. One tendril continued to dangle in her face. A horrified scream escaped her when she realized her blonde hair was no longer short. It was now long and curled, the way it used to look when she was younger. This has to all be a dream. Josselyn sat back on her heels, and peered down at her lap—her T-shirt and jeans had been replaced with an old-fashioned gray dress that had seen better days. Her hands shook and her voice was trapped in her throat as panic took up the space within her.
Josselyn stood on wobbly legs, the dress swaying against her body and bare feet. She gripped the fabric of the dress until the skin on her knuckles turned pure ivory. Trees and bushes surrounded her with only one direct path ahead. It was in the opposite direction from where she’d fallen. Josselyn didn’t know what to do until she took a deep breath and decided to run for the path laid out in front of her.
She trampled through bushes and branches, stopping only for a second to see the same Sleepy Hollow sign from the display. The wind blew at her hair, cold against her warm back. This was impossible. A fog settled around her, and she took off running again, jogging into a town with rows of rotted houses lined on either side of the field. Her heart pounded harder. She didn’t stop, didn’t think, she just ran.
As Josselyn finally came to a halt, the wind paused and the world became silent. The hairs on her arms stood on end at the eeriness of it all. She didn’t know where to go, what direction to take, but then she didn’t need to know—a graveyard rested before her. Littered in front of every headstone sat a severed head, their blank dead eyes seeming to be focused directly on her. They were everywhere. No bodies, just bloodied, abandoned heads. She gasped loudly and covered her mouth.
The ground beneath her feet shook with a deep vibrato. Pound, pound-pound, pound. The sound of it was deafening in the silence of the graveyard, yet it only grew louder. Josselyn couldn’t move, couldn’t think, as the first living thing she’d seen, since the guy at the museum, barreled through the fog.
A man on a horse approached. She was about to yell for help when her mouth fell open. To her immediate horror, he had no head. No fucking head at all. Josselyn closed her eyes tightly and swallowed hard. If this was, without a doubt, the Sleepy Hollow, then that could only mean the man on the mount was the Headless Horseman.
“This can’t be happening. It’s only a dream.” The beat of hooves on dirt came closer, each step louder, and she begged herself to wake up. For one split second, a searing pain tore at her throat, then it faded away as quickly as it had come.
Katrina awoke in a wooden chair in her sitting room. “What was I doing again? Oh yes, I need to start cooking. I must finish everything before the Headless Horseman returns, when I will have to fall silent again.”
