The Haunted

by Jessica Verday

  I looked at Ben skeptically.

  “You hated it, didn’t you?” he asked.

  “Well, not hated… Okay, yeah. It was pretty boring,” I admitted.

  He laughed. “That’s okay. At least you didn’t fall asleep.”

  No, but I was pretty damn close.… “So, am I forgiven?”

  “Sure,” he said. “It’s cool.” Glancing down at his watch, he sat up straight. “Oh man, I gotta go. My Dad will be home from work soon, and I’m helping him fertilize the Christmas trees tonight.”

  He moved toward the DVD player to grab his movie. “Thanks for the pizza, Abbey.”

  The word suddenly jogged something in my brain. “Pizza! Wait. Just a second.” I dashed upstairs and rifled through the dirty-clothing pile that held the jeans I’d worn the night we’d gone to the movies. The plastic card was still in the back pocket; I pulled it free and then flew downstairs.

  “Here.” I held it out to Ben. “The pizza guy gave it to me the other night. I totally forgot. You dropped it when you paid.”

  “Library card,” he said. “Thanks.”

  I glanced down, really seeing it for the first time. Ben took it from me and pulled out his wallet with his free hand, but the letters on the card were starting to make sense in my head.

  “D. Benjamin Bennett?” I said slowly. “Your first name starts with a D?”

  “Yeah.” He flipped open the wallet and held it so I could see his driver’s license. “Daniel. I’m named after my dad, so everyone calls me by my middle name.”

  Warning bells started crashing in the back of my mind, and a black spot bloomed on the edge of my vision. D. Ben was D. Ben was Kristen’s secret boyfriend.

  He gave me a strange look and put the library card away. “Are you okay, Abbey?”

  All I could see was a black spot over his face, like I’d been blinded by a bright light. I put out one hand and then jerked it away. “Fine… I’m…” My throat felt funny, tight and constricted. With my vision clearing, I stared at him, my mouth gaping wide.

  “You… sure?” he asked me.

  Bile churned in the back of my throat, and I knew I was going to be sick. “I think the pizza isn’t sitting very… well,” I gasped. “Go on. I’ll… Bye.” I waved my hand, desperately hoping that he’d leave before I puked all over his shoes.

  Ben must have been able to read what was on my face, because he turned and headed for the door. “Okay. See you later, Abbey,” he said.

  I waited for half a second, then ran up the stairs for the bathroom before I even heard the front door close. I made it just in time.

  The tile floor was a cold comfort against my cheek, and I lay there for a while afterward. My body twitched every now and then, little spasms of aftershock that ran through my veins, making my arms and legs jerk to keep time with some unseen clock of horror. I didn’t know how long I lay there. Felt like minutes. Felt like hours.

  A door slamming and voices below calling my name broke through my stupor, and prompted me to struggle to a sitting position. I couldn’t let them see me like this or I’d never hear the end of it.

  Footsteps sounded on the stairs. Using the edge of the sink, I hauled myself up and nudged the bathroom door shut just as a knock came on my bedroom door.

  “Abbey?”

  In here. But it didn’t come out, and I tried again. “In here.”

  “Did you already eat? We found a pizza box downstairs.” Mom’s voice came through the door.

  “Yeah, Ben came over for some pizza, but it didn’t agree with me.”

  “Aww, poor baby. Do you need me to do anything?”

  Gripping the sink, my knuckles turned white, and I tried to keep my voice steady. “No, I’ll be out in a minute.”

  “Okay. Come downstairs when you’re ready.”

  I waited until her footsteps faded away before I looked at myself in the mirror. I was almost afraid of what I’d see. But it was just me looking back. My eyes were surprisingly clear and dry. My hair didn’t look any different. Though my face was completely white. I was pale as a ghost.

  I laughed a little hysterically at that thought and then shoved my fist into my mouth to muffle the sound. No, stop that. Get a hold of yourself, Abbey. Turning the cold handle, I splashed some water on my face until the frigid temperature turned my cheeks red.

  Drying off, I mentally composed myself to go downstairs. I needed to leave. I needed to go find Caspian.

  Mom and Dad were in the kitchen making dinner.

  “There she is,” Mom said. I smiled wanly at her. She put down the frozen pack of shrimp she held and came over to me. “You’re pale. Do you want to lie down for a little bit?”

  “What’s wrong? What happened?” Dad asked.

  “Food poisoning.” Mom held the back of her hand to my forehead.

  “I’m feeling better now,” I replied. “I think I just need to go for a walk. Get some fresh air.” I went over to the door.

  “Don’t be gone too long,” Mom said.

  “Okay,” I called back, slipping out the door.

  I ran to the cemetery, out of breath and out of the ability to think clearly. All I knew was that there was one person who could help me make sense of this. One person who could make it all better. And I was going to find him.

  Darkness hadn’t fallen yet, so the main gates were still open, and I pounded toward the mausoleum. The overwhelming urge to just find Caspian and tell him about Ben was driving me mad.

  “Caspian!” I yelled, pushing open the mausoleum door. A single candle burned by his makeshift table. My voice bounced off the walls and came back to me. “Caspian, where are you?”

  He wasn’t answering.

  I moved to his stuff, calling his name over and over again. Frustration bubbled up in me. Where is he? I have to see him!

  Something was in my hands, and I looked down to see the charcoal he used was dangerously close to snapping in half. I hadn’t even realized I’d picked it up.

  Relaxing my grip, I reached for a nearby drawing pad and tore out a piece of paper. I need you, I scrawled, and left it in the middle of his table. He’d see it there when he came back.

  I stormed out of the crypt, still reeling from confusion and anger, and decided to head to the bridge. As I ran, I desperately wished for him to be there. I needed to make sense of this. How could Ben have been D. all this time? How could I not have seen it sooner?

  The looming wooden structure rose up out of nowhere. I crossed the riverbank, daring to yell his name again. Straining my eyes to make out any shape that could possibly be him. Double- and triple-checking the trestles up under the bridge to see if he was there.

  He wasn’t.

  Digging my fingernails into clenched fists, I threw my head back and screamed, “Why can’t I find you?!” My heart was racing, and I tried to calm down, but I couldn’t. I pounded the side of my head with my hand as I paced back and forth. “Think! Think, Abbey! Where else would he go?”

  Irving’s grave.

  The thought came to me in a crystal-clear flash of inspiration. I left the river behind, and walked quickly to his plot. My heart sank when it came into view. The little fenced area that enclosed his grave was empty. Caspian wasn’t there.

  I climbed the stone steps and pushed my way through the gate, sinking to my knees at the foot of Washington Irving’s tombstone. “I’m lost,” I whispered. “I can’t find Caspian, and I need him.” A bird chirped nearby, sounding like he was saying, “Why? Why? Why?”

  A scraping sound made me jerk around. I staggered to my feet. “Nikolas!”

  He looked… wary, and I stopped short of hugging him.

  “Is everything okay, Abbey?”

  “Have you seen Caspian?” I asked. Nikolas shook his head, and I reached out to grip his hand. “Are you sure? I have to find him.”

  “Why?” He said it so abruptly that I took a step back. “Tell me why.”

  “Because I found out who Kristen’s secret boyfriend is! Don�
�t you see, Nikolas? He might have been with her the night she died.”

  “And you are positive that it was not Caspian here that night with her?”

  His question jolted me. “Caspian? No. It wasn’t him. He already told me he wasn’t here that night, and besides, Kristen couldn’t have seen him and touched him. There’s no way it was him.” I knew without a shadow of doubt that what I was saying was true.

  Nikolas nodded his head. “I do not think that it was your young man either. I just wanted to be sure.”

  Suddenly, something Nikolas had said once flashed through my mind. “Before I left Sleepy Hollow, when I came to your house, you said Kristen isn’t like you. Isn’t a Shade. That you saw her die.”

  He wouldn’t look at me then. Wouldn’t meet my eyes.

  “Nikolas?” I prodded. “What did you see? Please. Tell me. I need to know.”

  He gazed at me, looking like he’d instantly aged a hundred years. It was as if every horrible thing he’d ever seen or done was etched in the lines across his face. A tear ran down his cheek. “Is it not enough that I saw her die? Why does any more matter?”

  I gripped his hand and held on tight. “Was anyone with her?”

  He shook his head, as if unable to speak, and I waited.

  “I was on my way back to my home,” he said slowly. “And I saw her in the water. I felt something. Something dark. But I was too far away.” He pulled his hand free, and it was shaking. “Did I see someone there? I am not sure. It was dark.… There were trees.… All I know is that I had to watch that poor girl get pulled under, and I could do nothing about it.”

  Flashes of my dream from the night Kristen died played out in front of my eyes, and I was lost in them. Cold water. Dull pain. Aching chest. Hopelessness.

  “That is what I saw, Abbey,” Nikolas said sadly. “I could do nothing. And now you know the worst of it. To see someone die and not be able to cry for help, to be unable to pull them to shore, or to go warn someone of that which you just witnessed… It is a hell like no other.” He looked off into the distance, at the graveyard behind us, and his voice grew softer. “There is a barrier between their world—your world—and mine, and I am unable to breach it.”

  The tables turned then, and he reached for my hand, gripping it with a strength I didn’t know he had. “This is my curse. Pay attention, Abbey. It might just save your life.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  COMPANY

  Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie.”

  —“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

  I left my window open at home in case Caspian found my note, and I was pacing back and forth in front of it when his face suddenly appeared. I rushed over to him. “I couldn’t find you!”

  “Abbey, what’s wrong?” He looked worried. “I thought that something had… that you’d…”

  “I found out who Kristen’s secret boyfriend is!” I blurted out.

  He went completely still. “You did?”

  Nodding, I gestured for him to come inside. He climbed through the window, and I backed up a step.

  “How did you find out?” Caspian asked. “Who is it?”

  “It was on his library card. The initial D. I saw it and asked about it. His first name is Daniel.” I turned to face him. “It’s Ben.”

  Caspian looked at me in disbelief. “That nerd boy who tried to put the moves on you?”

  “Yeah. He came over for pizza today, and we watched a movie because I totally forgot about our tutoring session, and…” My words deserted me. I couldn’t speak fast enough to keep up with my racing mind.

  “God, Caspian! I just can’t believe it. All this time.”

  I started to feel queasy again, and put one hand to my mouth.

  “Why don’t you sit down?” Caspian came closer and shepherded me to the bed. I followed, and he sat next to me, looking concerned. “Are you sure it’s him? Really, really sure? I certainly don’t want to stick up for the guy, but he doesn’t seem like the type to have made her keep such a big secret.”

  I shook my head. “It has to be him. He knows all this stuff about Kristen. Like where she wanted to go to college, and what her brother was good at… And at her funeral? He seemed really upset. Like, really upset. More than normal. He probably felt guilty.”

  Caspian was silent.

  “Arrrrrhhhh!” I yelled. “How could I not have seen this? All this time. He was always so nice to me. I bet he was just trying to figure out how much I knew.” I jumped up to pace again. I couldn’t sit still.

  “Maybe you should ask him,” Caspian suggested.

  “What?” I stopped. “No, I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Be-because he’s just going to lie to me,” I stuttered. “He’s not going to tell me the truth.”

  “Maybe he will.”

  “Yeah, right. Like you did?” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. “I’m sorry. That was below the belt. I didn’t mean it.”

  “Yes, you did. But it’s okay. I deserve it.” His eyes looked miserable, and it broke my heart.

  I sat next to him on the bed. “No you don’t,” I said. “I’m just being an asshole because I’m pissed at Ben, and I took it out on you. Forgive me?”

  “Of course,” he said. “Always.”

  But he wouldn’t look at me.

  “Caspian.” I tried to nudge his arm and felt the tingle. “Hey, Casper.”

  That was enough to get him to look at me.

  “I’d hold your hand right now if I could,” I said.

  He smiled. “Thanks. It’s the thought that counts.”

  Knowing that I was truly forgiven, I leaned back on the bed and looked up at the stars. “It has to be him… right? I mean, it makes too much sense. Everything he knows about her, showing up at her locker last year, being so upset at her memorial. Even making friends with me… It all points to classic signs of guilt.”

  “Or it could just mean that he misses her.”

  But that didn’t make any sense. “I don’t think so.”

  We sat there in silence, and I kept turning everything over in my mind. Replaying bits and pieces of conversations, trying to make all the puzzle pieces fit. It was all so shocking and new. I felt blindsided.

  “What are you going to do?” Caspian asked.

  “I don’t know. How do you bring up something like that? As a question? An accusation? Do I slip it into our next casual conversation?” I laughed bitterly. “Like we’re going to have any more of those. And to think that he was in my—” I stopped abruptly and shut my mouth.

  “Was in your… ?”

  I could feel my face heating up, and I shook my head.

  “Come on,” he prodded. “Was he in your cereal bowl? Tea leaves? What?”

  “Nothing.” I snapped. He didn’t respond, but just sat there quietly. Looking at me. “Oh, all right, fine,” I finally sighed. “He was in one of my dreams, okay? But then he sorta turned into you, and it was crazy.” His eyes widened. “Can we please get back on track here?” I said. “People can’t control their dreams.”

  He ran his fingers through his hair. “Do you have his phone number? You could call him.”

  “That’s not exactly a conversation best suited to the phone, you know?”

  “Do you want to go talk to him about it?” His green eyes held mine. “I’ll go with you.”

  Fear and excitement rose inside of me. “I don’t know…” I bit down on one thumbnail, worrying the edges with my teeth. “Could I? Should I?”

  “Asking is the only way you’re going to find out for sure. And think of it this way: Without knowing, are you going to be able to sleep tonight?”

  No. “Good point. But I don’t know where he lives.” I stood up and went over to my desk, flipping the switch on my computer. “Google.”

  Nervously tapping my finger
s on the edge of my computer monitor, I waited for the computer to start up. But then the tapping noises started to make me irritated, and I switched to rolling one of my perfume bottles back and forth between my hands.

  Finally, the computer stopped clicking and whirring, and I pulled up a search engine. Typing in Ben’s full name and Sleepy Hollow, NY brought up a database listing in no time.

  “Looks like he lives over by the high school,” I said. “Feel up for a walk?”

  Caspian stood. “Let’s go.”

  We climbed out the window and crossed the yard, setting off in the direction of the school. Twenty minutes later we reached Ben’s house, and I bounced from side to side on the balls of my feet, trying to psych myself up like a prizefighter getting ready for the ring. I carefully pushed the doorbell and then waited for someone to answer.

  A middle-aged woman with brown hair opened it up. She was wearing a light-colored tunic and gray pants. A dish towel was suspended in one of her hands. “Can I help you?”

  “Um, hi, Mrs. Bennett?” At her nod I continued. “I’m Abbey Browning. Ben is tutoring me?”

  A wide smile broke out across her face. “Oh yes, how are you, Abbey?”

  “Good, thanks. Um, do you know where Ben is? I need to talk to him.”

  Her smile turned to a slight frown, and then it was gone. “He’s with his father. At the Christmas-tree farm, about five blocks away from here. Next to a vacant lot.”

  I nodded. “Okay, thanks.” I was already turning away from her.

  “Do you want me to call him?” she asked.

  I turned back. “No, thanks. I’ll surprise him. See ya, Mrs. Bennett.” I waved cheerfully and turned away again as soon as she shut the door.

  Caspian and I made short work of the five blocks. The Christmas-tree farm, if you could even call it that, was a small strip of land. A very small strip of land. There were twenty or thirty baby trees, growing in rows.

  A man was there, doing something with a bucket, and at first I didn’t see Ben. Then he stood up, and I realized that he’d been bending so low to the ground that I hadn’t seen him. But now I could make out his curly hair.