sleepy hollow-open all

[TeamRosalieHale]

A darkening sky started to form, everyone in Sleepy Hollow held their breaths, wondering who would be next on the Horseman's list. Baltus, Mary, and Katrina sat silently in their home, like the rest of the town they waited with bated breath.
"Maybe he's done?" Katrina asked nearly breathlessly.
Mary and Baltus shared a look before agreeing with her.

[Arwen17]

Mary secretly gloated to herself over the horseman's latest deeds. Soon...Soon Baltus and Katrina would be dead and her years of plotting revenge would finally come to fruition. But it was nice to let them stew in extreme terror for awhile yet.

Mary retired herself early from the family that night. Sarah came in and undid the corset strings of her under dress and left quickly. Mary waited quietly, silently seething, for Baltus to join her in the bedroom. Mary examined her pale hands, yet to show any signs of aging. How she would love to wrap them around Baltus' neck more than any other body part. Still in the process of imagining different violent deaths for her husband, she heard a cry, "Mary!...Mary, come quickly!"

[queenelspeth]

Rolling her eyes, Mary fixed a look of confusion and fright on her face before leaving the bedroom, wrapping a shawl around her as she went. She found Baltus in the corridor, pale and frightened.

"Goodness, what is it?" she asked, her voice dripping with concern. Oh, how well she played this part! She came close and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, soothing him. "Tell me." she urged.

Baltus looked at his wife and towards the window, his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed, unconcious. Interesting, thought Mary, of all the fools in this town she hadn't expected Baltus to be one to faint. Must be bad. She thought wryly. Pulling on his arm, she managed to get him into a sitting position and lean hiim against the wall. She left and returned with a glass of water which she tipped over his head to wake him. Concealing her laughter, she knelt next to him. "Are you alright, dear? Whatever has happened?"

[Queen Mab]

To her irritance he began to stutter. It was absolutely impossible to make out a word of what he was saying. She put a hand on his shoulder even though it sickened her. "Hush. Calm down my dear you need a glass of water." She walked away wearily from the shaking heap on the floor and knocked on Katrina's room door. The girl answered and by the shuffling inside she would probably have been hiding one of her wicca books. As if she would be capable of performing those sort of arts, it took intelligence.

Something the girl strongly lacked in. "What is wrong step-mother?" she shut her room door behind her. "Quick Katrina go and fetch Sarah. Something has deeply unsettled your father he may need a doctor and tell Sarah to bring a glass of water." Katrina looked at her father worriedly. "Of course, right away." Mary didn't like the girl but still she admired her loyalty and love to her father and even her. "N-no...no." Baltus stuttered Katrina stopped in her tracks. "What is it father what's wrong?" He gasped for breath. "There is something you need to know..."

[Arwen17]

"No do not fetch, Sarah, of all people." Baltus trembled. "I think she is the culprit. I swear I saw her performing some heinous rite out in the woods yesterday." Baltus whispered in fear.
"And today, I found some kind of evil diagram drawn underneath the chaise lounge. She must be trying to call down the Horseman upon us!" Baltus whole body shook at this last pronouncement.

"It can't be! Not Sarah!" Mary responded with horrified shock.

Katrina's unshocked look went unnoticed by her father, but not by Mary. Katrina bit her lip, but said nothing. Interesting... Mary thought.

"Father," Katrina finally spoke up. "We don't know for sure that it's Sarah."

"That circle may not have been drawn by her." Katrina pressed on, "And we do not know her intentions behind what you think you saw her doing yesterday."

"Katrina is right, my love." Mary spoke, taking Katrina's side. "There isn't enough evidence."
Fool, how many people enter his house unaccompanied? Mary scorned Baltus. How many different people could possibly be responsible for that diagram?
"And what will the villagers say if it becomes common knowledge that witchcraft was worked in this house?" Mary swayed him with her words. "Think of what that would do to this household's reputation, even if it was just the servant girl."
Mary provided the answer to their problems."The best thing to do would be to keep this a secret and have a minster come and perform a routine exorcism on the house to remove the traces of witchcraft."

"Yes, yes, you are right dear." Baltus looked somewhat relieved and less faint than before.

"Now go lie down and rest." Mary spoke warmly to him. "Katrina and I will erase the circle."

As Baltus moved towards the bedroom, Mary left with Katrina.

Mary and Katrina approached the chaise lounge and saw the very edge of a chalk circle visible from underneath it. Working together, they both pushed lounge off the circle completely.
Mary examined it with a practiced eye and recognized it at once as a both a circle of protection and Katrina's handwriting.
Katrina eyed Mary nervously, not comprehending Mary's distraction.
Mary noticed Katrina's look and brought with it a feeling of déjà vu.
How long ago had it been when she had drawn a circle on the floor and her mother had stood next to her eyeing it intensely while Mary nervously waited for her mother's approval.

"Get some water and salt." Mary commanded. Katrina looked surprised. "Why do you want salt?"

"It has purifying properties. It will help remove any ill effects of the spell." Mary explained.

Katrina left to fetch the items requested. Of course, the salt will remove any lingering protection this circle would have offered to Baltus and Katrina. Mary smirked.But a child's silly circle is not powerful enough to stop the horseman, no matter how many she draws.

Katrina and Mary scrubbed all the chalk off the wood floor boards with saltwater and moved the lounge back into place. "Not a word of this to anyone, understand?" Mary asked Katrina.

"Yes, but what about Sarah?" Katrina responded with worry.

"I'll have to have a talk with her." came the ominous reply

[Queen Mab]

Katrina was rather confused she had never known her step mother to know much of witch craft. Even if it was just that you had to add salt it had surprised her. She was also wondering what would happen to Sarah. What would her step mother say to the servant girl? She couldn't bare not knowing. They had just scrubbed the last of the chalk off. It was very unusual for the lady of the house and her step daughter to do this. However so were the circumstances.

"Step mother, could I come with you? When you go to talk to Sarah I mean." Brilliant she was going to be stuck with Katrina even more than usual. "Why ever would you want to do that dear?" Katrina had to know what was going to be said."Well if she is a witch she could cast a spell on you or something. If we're both there it won't so easy for her." Yes of course a servant girl who probably practiced wicca for five minutes would out smart her Mary Archer who had practiced the art a life time.
Still it would be interesting to see how Katrina would act her reaction earlier had certainly been something to think about.

"I suppose you best come then we shall see her tonight." Katrina looked surprised. "Tonight? Wouldn't it be better to wait until breakfast?" "Yes. You never know she could poison us while we sleep we should sort this now. If you wish not to go of course you don't have to." Mary left for the kitchen with the brushes they had been using. "No, tonight is fine step mother. I'll come."

[Arwen17]

Katrina picked at her plate of food that night. Sarah, completely oblivious to the situation, continued serving dinner to the family. The tension at the dinner table was papable, but not seemingly unusual because the threat of the horseman created perpetual tension in every home.

Mary drank deeply from her goblet the most relaxed out of any of them. Tonight she would sneak out to deal with Sarah once Baltus had fallen asleep. She had mixed a little sleeping potion into his drink to insure he would not awake until morning.

----

Mary slipped silently from her bed, leaving the sound of her husband's loud snoring behind her.
She cloaked herself and slithered down the stairs. She noticed Katrina asleep on the lounge. Mary rolled her eyes, but decided it best to take the stupid girl with her. She nudged Katrina awake. "Get your cloak and keep your face covered."

The girl was far too noisy and clumsy for Mary's tastes. She would wake half the hollow by the time they got there. "There she is!" Katrina whispered loudly.
"shhh!" Mary hissed at her to be silent and followed Sarah's cloaked figure through the trees.

This is so stupid. Mary thought. One of them was bound to get caught and then it would reveal the rest of them. Everyone would want to know why three women of the same household were all out wondering around in the woods in the dead of night.

Mary decided to wait for a bit and allow some distance between Sarah and them because she was afraid Katrina would give them away with her tripping over the tree roots every minute.
Finally she allowed herself and Katrina to advance again, following Sarah's trail.
Mary spotted Sarah first and pulled Katrina down with her behind some overgrown vegetation. Peering through the bush, they saw Sarah was marking some kind of circle on the ground. She trailed a dirty stick through the dead leaves on the forest floor until she had completed her diagram.
Sarah began to chant nonsense words as she walked around the edge of the circle.
Mary tilted her head slightly. Behind the nonsense words, she thought she could faintly hear something else, a soft humming or singing perhaps. The humming was growing louder as if approaching, while Mary was still trying to identify precisely what it reminded her of. Katrina, no longer able to contain herself, lunged forward into the clearing before Mary could grab her. "No! Stop! Please!" Katrina begged.
At the same moment, another woman appeared from the trees at the other side of the clearing.

Mary had just finished extracting herself from their hiding place when the last person she wanted to see appeared behind Sarah. All head turned towards the new arrival.
Sister... Mary thought. Oh no, this is not good.
Katrina stared in shock at the woman who had the same face as her step-mother. This woman was dressed in rags while her step-mother was dressed in fine clothing, but they had the same face!
Sarah stared in shock at Katrina and Lady Van Tassel, while her true mistress approached her from behind.

Was this fate? That Sarah and Morgan would stand on one side of the circle while Katrina and Mary stood at the other.