Forgotten Midnight Legends

D sighed as he rode along the silent, moonlit path. It had been a long, trying day for the dunpeal hunter; a day filled with fighting, chasing, and eventually killing yet another vampire. And, for the first time in who knows how long, D was bone weary. Every muscle and bone in his body ached, and his mind was foggy with the need for complete rest…………..but the job wasn't over yet. There was still a lesser vampire to track down.

"You're wearing yourself too thin, D. If you don't ease up, you're going to overtax yourself." Left warned, when he sensed that his host's energy was wavering.

"I know, but there's still one more target to take down. I can't rest until that one's been dealt with." D replied, his calm voice betraying how tired he truly was. Then, abruptly, D drew rein.

"What's wrong?" Left asked, confused by the dunpeal's sudden pause.

"There's someone following us. I can hear another horse somewhere a little behind and beside us." D murmured, his weariness falling away as his senses were put on high alert.

"Hmm……………I don't hear anything now. You sure you weren't hearing things?" Left again asked, with skepticism laced heavily in his voice.

"I was sure about the door." D retorted, bringing back into mind one of their most memorable hunts.

"True. But not its location." Left muttered. D squashed the urge to sigh in exasperation; he did not want to spend the whole night arguing with his parasitic partner. With the very slightest of kicks, he got his mount to start moving again. No sooner did he do so, did he start hearing the sounds again. The telltale clinking of bridle and bit, the sound of leather groaning as the unseen rider shifted in his saddle, the horse's hooves as it walked alongside the trail, and even the occasional swish of the horse's tail. What confused D to no end was that he had not heard a single breath from the other rider. Not even once.

"What is the fool doing? Holding his breath? What does he hope to achieve by doing that?" D wondered, as his keen ears brought all this information back. He drew rein again and looked back; this time, not only did the other rider stop, he didn't appear either.

"Getting paranoid?" Left asked, jokingly. D gave Left an unreadable look.

"I know what I keep hearing is not my imagination. There is someone following us. I can hear him." D muttered, moodily, as he got his horse moving again. This time he moved his mount into an easy trot, not surprised when the other rider mimicked his actions. For almost an hour, they continued on like this, D moving his mount from trot to canter and back again, and the unseen rider doing the same. When he came to a spot where the path led into a moonlit copse, D stopped again and looked over his shoulder. This time, however, instead of seeing an empty path behind him, D saw something that chilled even him to the marrow of his bones. On an ebony black steed sat the rider; he was clothed in black, as D was, but with one major difference: the mystery rider had no head!

"Well, that explains why I didn't hear him breathe back there…………." D thought, as every instinct, both human and vampire, told him to run.

"D, what is it? What do you see back there?" Left asked, sensing that something was up when D's whole body tensed.

"Take a look and see for yourself." D replied, as he lifted his possessed hand into a position so Left could see what it was that had disturbed him so. Left was immediately alarmed by what he saw.

"D, we've gotta get outta here! I know what that thing is!" Left shouted.

"Then don't waste any time in explanation!" D stated, as he gave his horse a sharp kick in the ribs and the horse broke into a full-fledged gallop. The headless rider did the same. For hours on end the chase continued; the hunter now becoming the hunted, as he raced away from the ghoulish apparition. At one point, D was nearly knocked from his mount's back, and looked back to see that the headless rider had what appeared to be a burning jack-o-lantern in the crook of one arm, and he saw numerous faces forming in the midst of the flames. At first, many unfamiliar faces appeared, then the distinctive appearance of a long dead schoolmaster took form. And this was just before that was replaced by D's face.

"I'm to be it's next victim………………" D thought, as he furiously fought to right himself in the saddle and urge the horse to go even faster. With much effort, he did so, and on through the night he rode, his horsemanship put to the ultimate test. Several times the nightmare rider got close enough that D could feel the other's mount's hot breath on his back, and hear the singing of steel through the air as the rider swiped at his head with a sword. Finally, after another hour or so of frantic riding, D crossed a shallow stream, trying in a vain effort to put some distance between himself and the headless rider. To his shock and bewilderment, his desperate ploy worked! The rider drew rein and skidded to a halt on the other side of the stream, just opposite where D sat now.

"Huh……………..it's just as I thought…….." Left muttered, as he and D watched the evil figure melt back into the shadows from whence he came.

"What was that thing?" D asked, his voice carrying just a very faint hint of disgust and fear.

"That, my friend, was the legend of Sleepy Hollow." Left replied, matter-of-factly.

"The so-called 'Headless Horseman'? That was the same headless horseman that had supposedly spirited away that schoolmaster so many centuries ago?" D asked, incredulously.

"The very same." Left said, confidently.

"Then that one face was who I thought it was!" D thought, then added, "It's a little hard to believe, yet, now that I think about it, the rider was wearing eighteenth century clothing. Maybe there was some truth in the old legend after all."

"Maybe. Anyway, let's get out of here. I, for one, don't want to stick around long enough to find out if he can find a way to cross this stream." Left said, somewhat nervously.

"For once, we both can agree on something." D said, only too glad to be getting back on the path and leaving the ghostly encounter behind him. But he was too proud to admit that.

Owari