Kiya: 'ellos to those that believe in me!! I'm in a nice mood so I'll add this chapter up as well for all the devilish good reviewers out there!

Chapter Three: Unescapable Destiny

Ichabod's eyes grew wide from the news and tried to back away, forgetting that he was sitting and had fallen over his seat to the floor within seconds. 'It's not possible!' Ichabod mentally screamed in his mind, 'Why would he want me to join him?' Standing up from the floor, he put his mental question into voice.

"But...why me?" Ichabod asked, still not wanting to believe that the Hessian was after him.

"That I would not know," Lancaster Sr. replied, "You would have to ask the Hessian that."

"There must be someway that we can stop the Hessian from rising up and destroying this town, no, this country!" Ichabod shouted at the old man pacing around his office with worry.

"And people call me Madman," Lancaster chuckled to himself while watching the poor constable pace back and forth, "The only thing that was holding him back from escaping hell was the Tree of the Dead, but now that the Hessian has his head back, from the physical world no less, he can walk among the living as well as the dead."

"But there must be something anything at all that could stop him!" Ichabod pleaded to the old man.

"Well...there is one way that would stop him and his army from rising up," the old man said to himself while thinking, "But that would be impossible to do."

"Please! Any way that can stop him I will to protect this town and country," Ichabod pleaded once more to Lancaster with determination on his face to get the job done. Lancaster then sighed and turned away from the young constable.

"You must chop the Tree of the Dead down with the Hessian's sword," the old man told him in a whispered tone, proving his old age was real. Ichabod looked at him with confusion and puzzlement.

"But isn't his sword in this physical plain as his tomb stone?" he questioned the old man, his voice also quiet with confusion.

"No the sword I speak of his the same one he bares with him and the one that stabbed you with its unholy flames," Lancaster Sr. said and turned to Ichabod, "You must retrieve his inferno weapon to this plain and chop the tree down with its fiery blade, scorching it to a stump,"

Ichabod's face then paled at the thought of going inside the tree's bloody passageway to retrieve the Hessian's sword and cutting the gate way to hell. Looking at Lancaster to see if there was any other way to avoid that and seeing that there wasn't came to his full decision.

"I'll do it...I'll go down to hell and bring his sword back to chop the Tree of the Dead down," Ichabod sighed but showed determination on his mission. Lancaster, looking surprised that Ichabod had not tailed it out of town by now, turned his face into that of a mischievous grin.

"Then we haven't the time to diddle daddle Mr. Crane!" Lancaster jumped up, almost as if he was still a school boy and made his way to the door, "We need you to get ready to go down that tree tonight!"

"Tonight?!" Ichabod exclaimed with fright and rushed after the old kook.

That night in the Van Tassel Manor, Ichabod was in the kitchen with Katrina, Masbeth, a Lancaster Sr. as they prepared Ichabod for the journey of a life time.

"Katrina...are you sure this will work?" Ichabod asked, while watching Katrina conjure something within the small caldron.

"Yes Ichabod," Katrina answered him what seemed like the eleventh time, "Once you drink this potion, you will have exactly thirty minutes to find the Horseman's sword and return back here without his or the Tree's knowing that you entered in."

"Constable Crane, are you sure this is wise for you to go down there alone?" Young Masbeth asked, worried for the constable's sake, "I could come with you so that you won't be alone down there."

"Thank you, Masbeth, but this is my duty to protect this town and if something happens to you down there I won't ever forgive myself," Ichabod answered the young Masbeth.

"Take this," Lancaster informed Ichabod while handing him a pendant with, what looks like human hair, tied around it. "This will help you locate where the Hessian is down there. The hair once belonged to him before we buried him so many years ago."

"I still don't know if this is wise, Ichabod, for all we know Ma-Mr. Lancaster could be wrong about all this and the Horseman could be resting in peace." Katrina tried to reassure the young constable while finishing the potion.

"And I'm telling you now, Miss Van Tassel, that the Hessian will NEVER rest in peace," Lancaster reinformed her and the rest again. When Ichabod and Lancaster arrived back to the manor Lancaster filled in to what was going to happen and what was needed to be done while there was still time. Katrina had her beliefs that the Hessian was gone for good, while young Masbeth was neutral on the subject only watching the battle on who was right and wrong be played by Katrina and Lancaster Sr. Sighing with a bit of frustration, Katrina added the last ingredient to the pot and stirred it well.

"The potion is finished," she informed the men, while pouring all its content into a glass for Ichabod and handing it to him. "Drink this before you enter the forest so that the trees and everything around you in there will be unaware of your presence." Nodding to her, Ichabod took the glass full of potion from her and made his way to the door.

"Well...I better get going everyone," Ichabod informed them before opening the door to leave.

"Be careful sir!" Masbeth called out to him.

"And what ever you do Mr. Crane, do not listen to anything in you head!" Lancaster yelled to him as a warning of some sort while Katrina remain silent as the Ichabod exited the manor. As he ventured forward towards the woods, a slam from behind made him turn around to see a rushing Katrina come towards him and hug him on the spot.

"Please...please come back alive Ichabod," Katrina pleaded to him while hiding her face in his shirt.

"Don't worry Katrina," Ichabod assured her while petting her head, "I will come back to you." Ichabod pulled himself away from her and looked into her eyes to make her see that he was serious to his word.

"I believe in you Ichabod," she smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek before looking at his eyes again and her face frowned a bit, "Ichabod...why do your eyes turn a shade of red?" Ichabod blinked with confusion and looked at Katrina again.

"What do you mean?" he asked with a kind voice to hide the fear that might be heard from him. Katrina stared at him a bit more before shaking her head.

"It must had been the light," she said with a smile before retreating back to the manor to wait for his return. Ichabod smiled at her innocence but then frowned slightly to what she meant earlier about his eyes but he, too, shrugged the thought away. Drinking the potion down and entering the woods, he found his way to the Tree of the Dead. As he stepped forward the tree's roots moved to make an opening for Ichabod to journey through. Shocked by the tree's response, he looked down at the pendant with the Hessian's hair and assumed that it was the hair. He walked towards the portal as the tree's roots twirled around as in silently saying, "Enter my pallor, said the spider to the fly". He then gulped before descended down into the portal with the tree shifting again to close the portal.

Kiya: Wow, with all the excitement going on what will happen to Ichabod? Will he escape from the Tree of the Dead alive? And will Katrina remain a virgin forever?! Stay tuned and find out!!