A.N. Hello :) I know, I know I have some unfinished stories here, but I'm sure you understand when inspiration suddenly strikes you like lightning and you feel better only when you have jotted the thing black on white :D So, a word on the origins of this story: it was first conceived back in 2008 – long before I joined – but never saw the light due to it being a total Mary Sue. The characters were the same, but the plot was completely different and, lemme say, lame-ass. Disheartened, I abandoned the whole concept, but never fully forgot it. And some days ago, I thought about it again and BAM! A brand new, much better material came into my mind. So, there you go. Enjoy this short prologue and please review! ;)

Disclaimer: If I owned Sleepy Hollow (either the short story by Washington Irving or the screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker and Kevin Yagher) I wouldn't be writing fanfiction.

OF GHOSTS, WITCHES, AND BEATING HEARTS (A Sleepy Hollow fanfiction)

Prologue

Thunder roared above, reverberating through the woods, up to the arches of the ever-gloomy sky of Sleepy Hollow. The bloody roots of the Tree of Dead opened wide, as if preparing a ghastly embrace for the two of them and the giant black steed Daredevil.

Mary Archer, widow Van Tassel, couldn't figure out what was throbbing more painfully: the back of her head, her heart or her lips, bleeding profusely after having almost been ripped off by that demon.

She was so close. So damn close! Just a second more, and a lifetime of sorrow, rancor, and sheer hatred would have been finally sated by a best-served-cold revenge.

But destiny had other plans for her, she realized while grabbing on to the Hessian Horseman to avoid falling off the horse. Again. And now, all she could think of was the horrible opening coming closer and closer in front of her, threatening an eternity of abuse by a sharp-toothed psychopath with excellent sword skills and a terrible attitude.

The Hessian felt more powerful than ever; cutting off heads and drinking the fear of his victims was nothing compared to immortality. While dashing for the infernal Tree that had been the door to his home for the last twenty years, for the first time he felt completely free, and found himself enjoying his invulnerability.

The witch that had been using him was screaming her bloody mouth off right next to him; she was like a white venomous flower speckled with the black of the coils on her dress and the red of her blood. So beautiful and so deadly. Oh, but she could do no more to him. Now it was his turn.

The moment Daredevil jumped into the hellish roots, the Hessian was snapped out of his reverie by the most atrocious, biting, searing wave of pain he'd ever felt; it hit his whole body, but it definitely started and ended in his chest. The closest feeling he could compare it to was burning fire and stinging ice being shot together into him, running through his empty veins and making him shine with a blinding white light. This was all he saw and felt before the living world disappeared.

Three young people were watching the incredible scene with a mixture of horror and awe: Ichabod Crane, a young New York City constable, Mary's stepdaughter Katrina Van Tassel, and 14-year-old orphan Jonathan Masbath Jr. The eerie adventure they had gone through was reaching its end at full gallop, on Daredevil's back, speeding towards the dark red jaws of that gnarled tree. As the black steed was mid-air between the ground of dead leaves and the horrible roots, a strong bolt of lightning seemed to crash on the demonic trio.

The three young heroes could have sworn that they saw the Horseman and his horse become glowing skeletons of white light for a second, before switching back to black shadows of death and being swallowed by the Tree.

And in a nightmarish childbirth going backwards, the creatures of Hell squeezed their way into the bloody womb.