Jude Van Tassel had been born into her future before she knew it. Though for the most part her choices were her own, it seems her future was a jumble of the decision of others.

"DO I HAVE A SINGLE GODDAMN CLEAN SHIRT?"

Jude pressed her hands over her temples, and slowly curled into a ball upon her bed. The angry footsteps trampled down the step as her mother made some weak retort back to monster. The monster was her father.

"Well then how come I can't find a single fucking one?!"

She closed her eyes, and pulled the comforter closer to her chin as they argued about shirts, and laundry. The dogs yipped, and barked until he let out another terrifying roar. Something slammed, and both dogs whimpered.

Jude quivered in her bed, and held her book closer to her chest. She could feel her breath become short and shallower, though she didn't know what was going on.

It feels like I'm drowning.

She bit her bottom lip, and closed her eyes tighter. As he yelled once more, she felt like screaming.

"Clean your own shirts, Rick."

Her soft whisper couldn't had made it out of the blankets, but it made her feel good. Silently she wished that for once she could stand up to him, but that would be impossible. He was too angry all the time, and too reckless. In her mind flashed the clear memory of him crashing the car just because he was in a bad mood.

As the yelling slowed she cringed as she heard her mothers forced laughter. The woman was a desperate idiot staying with that mad, Jude thought. Her mind skimmed over the countless times Kathy had promised her that they would leave if he exploded one more time. She had started doing that when Jude was five to calm her down, and now the girl was nearly eleven.

Her shaky hands opened the page of the old book that was in need of repair, and she immersed herself once more. Rick had sold the rest of her books when panicking about the families financial standing; all except The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. She had clung to it like it was her saving salvation, and in a way it was, and forever would be. It would also be her downfall.

Now the argument concerning fate could drag on forever, but it is undeniable that the introduction of Jonathan Crane into Jude Van Tassel's life drastically changed her entire future.

She was smitten from the moment she crashed into him on the sidewalk as the other kids tormented him, and threw rocks. All she could offer was a small smile behind large glasses and messy dark blonde hair. Her breath caught at how his ice blue eyes were, almost the same light shade as her own. It didn't matter how awkward or gangly he was or that his dark hair was always a mess.

"They make fun of you for your stutter, you know." He sat beside Jude on a bench at recess, making sure he was as far away as possible. She looked up from her book.

"I know."

He nodded, but didn't speak.

"They make fun of you too. It's because you're so skinny, and you always look like you're scared to death."

"I know."

She nodded, returning to her book.

"You don't talk like a normal ten-year-old."

"I don't spend a lot of time with other ten-year-old's."

"Who do you spend time with?"

"Myself, and my parents. Mostly myself."

"Are they married?"

She brushed over how insensitive he could be in her head, but watched as he relaxed into the bench. Her eyes swept back to the words in front of her, though she wasn't really reading them.

"No, but they live together."

Again he said nothing, but simply nodded.

The bell chimed loudly for the children to lineup and go inside, Jude tensed her arms, and shifted uncomfortably.

"Are you scared of that?"

"No."

"Liar."

She turned her back with a huff.

"Goodbye, Jonathan."

"Goodbye, Jude."

He said it just quietly enough that she could only barely hear as she tucked the book into her jacket pocket, and pulled the zipper shut. October was her favorite month, but spending too much time outside in the cold was not her favorite activity.

This went on for months. Jude would sit at her bench, and soon enough Jonathan would join her, and ask personal questions until time was up, and they had to go back inside. Some days he looked more like death than others, and some days he didn't come to school, and would come back looking ten times worse.

She understood perfectly well why, but there was no need to push. He hadn't questioned her, so why do the same to him?

Jude happily hummed as she floundered around the fields near the abandoned chapel on the outskirts of the town. A small hope in her sparked that maybe she would see Jonathan, but she knew that was too far off to be true. He did live nearby, but there was no reason he would out in the old chapel of all places.

The May wind swished up her hair around her eyes, and the tall grass as she fell onto the ground.

This was the only way to get away from her parents, she had discovered. They didn't mind as long as she yelled a gentle goodbye or left a note. It would only be her mother who would follow her on occasion, but her father simply cursed her as she left.

Setting Sleepy Hollow beside her, she pondered life without her father. It would be much more pleasant. Maybe her mother wouldn't be as mean, or crass. And maybe she could actually talk to people without being afraid that they were going to blow up just like he did. Her worst fear was to become either of her parents, so she decided that she was going to fall in love with Jonathan.

He was to timid to ever yell or be mean. He was nice to her no matter what, she thought.

A sudden shriek burst from within the walls of the church. Jude jumped to her feet with a start, keeping her eyes locked on the rotting wooden doors. The screech came again, only louder. It sounded less human this time. She could feel her hands shaking as she tried to slowly back away from the building. The dirt road seemed so far away now, and her legs felt like stone being pulled into the earth.

Five or ten screeches came at the same time, they sounded like crows. Along with another one from whatever other creature was being torn limb from limb inside.

Suddenly the feeling returned in her legs, and she was set free. Her feet ran faster than they ever could in gym class all the way down the dirt road, and straight back into her hellish home.

As she caught her warm breath, wheezing and coughing, she realized she had forgotten something.

Her book.

The book.

The only book that she still had left, the one that had kept her sane, and made sure she was alright throughout everything. The reason she had become friends with Jonathan Crane, because she thought it was fate that she happened the have the same last name as another character in the stories.

It was amazing how one little thing could make a ten-year-old's life come crashing down around her.

So this didn't quite upload correctly the first time whoops. Anyhow, this little back story will be over with in a chapter or two I think, then I'll move on to the actual story. Sorry if anyone read this while it was messed up. Anyway I'm picking and choosing things from the comics and movies, so it won't really stick to either because I like both tbh. Also I changed part of the Sleepy Hollow story because I realized that