Chapter 8: Beheading the Widow

After what seemed like forever, we finally reached the ancient windmill. This was the same windmill we had used for all of our beheadings and the one we will always use for them. Our horses strode up to the side of the giant contraption and we dismounted. Tying them to the railing on the side, my mother and I carefully walked into the building. My mother began setting up for the incantation, but I was too busy walking through open bags of old flour barefoot. I loved the strange feeling of rotten flour between my toes.

"Miranda!" she shouted to me. I looked up at her, blushing. "What are you doing?"

"I…uh…I was…" I couldn't think of what to say, "I was playing in the flour?"

She sighed. "Miranda, you're not five anymore," she said. She looked like she was thinking. "Fine, go ahead, do what ever you'd like. I'll work on raising the Horseman. But on one condition."

I looked back up at her, puzzled. "What?"

"You get to go into town after I raise him. You know, to make sure the job gets done."

I smiled. "Okay!" I replied, accepting my usual job. I went back to stomping around in the flour. The bottom of my dress was beginning to cloud up from the flour. I looked back at my shoes, which were still lying on the ground next to one of the bags. I examined them more closely, noticing a spot of something wet and dark crimson on them.

"Dammit," I moaned. I turned back to mother. "I've got Elizabeth blood on my shoes."

She sighed. "Well, since they think you are so fond of mice," she said, coming up with an excuse for me, "Just say that you were walking around in a field and you stepped on one."

I shrugged. "Alright," I said, finding that this was a suitable lie. I heard my mother begin her chanting, but I didn't really pay attention. I was too busy looking at a marking I thought I saw underneath the flour bags. I was just about to move it when I heard my name being called.

"Miranda!" my mother shouted to me, "Miranda! Andi! Have you lost your hearing?" She sighed and then moaned, obviously annoyed with me. Her sigh drew me out of my dreamland, but I didn't have a chance to see what was on the ground. I looked at her and smiled sweetly. "Yes, mother? What is it?"

"You have a job to be done. The Horseman comes," she said, sending me out of the windmill. I could still hear her chanting as I walked out.

It was a long, treacherous walk to the town. Why I didn't grab my horse, I don't know. Probably because I was too caught up in the moment. Anyway, I had to walk all the way to where the widow was just to make sure that the Horseman did his job and did it properly. I could hear him galloping through the woods, an eerie sound that sent chills down my spine. I wondered if the townspeople could hear him. Surely they couldn't, otherwise they would've run away.

As I walked, I began thinking of the constable that was to come tomorrow night. I thought about if he'd be smart enough to figure us out. I highly doubted it. I mean, if our smartest officials still believed that the Horseman was raising himself, what could a man from New York City figure out?

I was so busy contemplating what would happen once he got there that I didn't realize I was in town until I bumped into a building.

"Owww!" I scream-whispered, rubbing my now sore forehead. "Cursed building!" I said to it, in a bit too much pain to say anything worse.

I was so absorbed on the pain in my forehead that I was lucky that I heard a scream. I looked up, my head still throbbing, and grinned. I quickly ran towards the direction I heard the scream come from.

Suddenly, I was in an open field. This cannot be right, I thought to myself. Surely the Horseman and Emily weren't here. I mean, he wouldn't behead her in open ground, would he?

My question was answered when I saw Emily running towards me. I saw that the Horseman followed not far behind her. She just kept screaming and screaming, it made my head hurt inside and out.

"HELP!" she screamed, "THE HORSEMAN! HE'S AFTER ME! HELP!" Unfortunately, it was then that I realized I had done something very wrong. I remembered one of mother's rules.

"When checking to make sure the job has been done," she had said, "Make sure you aren't seen by the victim. You never know when they may shout out your name, giving you away."

I slapped myself in the forehead for forgetting this. Of course, this only made it hurt worse. "Ouch!" I shouted a bit too loud. This made the Widow look at me. I almost slapped myself again, but luckily I remembered this time, causing much less pain on my part.

"ANDI!" she shouted, "ANDI! PLEASE HELP ME!" She just kept running and running. I stood there and tried out one of my mother's smirks. I don't think it worked all that well, because I felt my face feel all scrunched up. I probably looked like I had just eaten something extremely sour. I sighed and just did one of my own smirks. I was just glad that the Horseman was finally catching up to the Widow.

After what seemed like forever of her running in circles and shouting my name, the Horseman finally pulled up next to her. I think he had been trying to wear her out and play games with her for torture purposes. She had slowed down a lot, and Daredevil, being dead, did not loose any strength or stamina. I sat in the field, picking at the grass as I watched.

The Horseman came right up next to her, drawing his sword. She saw him do this and screamed, using her last spurt of energy to sprint a few yards closer to me. However, once she used this, she just couldn't run any longer. She stopped, a grim look on her face as she faced me. With one quick slice he cut off her head, sending blood and the head flying. Her body fell flat to the ground quickly, backside up. Unfortunately for me, the head landed not too far in front of me, more blood getting on my shoes and Emily's dead, grim face staring right back at me. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it, so I kind of kicked it away, unfortunately getting even more blood on my shoes. I looked up just in time to see the Horseman flip her over onto her back. He slowly lifted his sword before plunging it into her stomach. It took me a second to remember why he was doing this, but then I remembered the baby. I cringed a bit, knowing what he was doing, especially as he pulled out his sword, the bottom portion smeared with dark crimson blood. I stood watching as he swiftly came over to reclaim the head, stashing it away into his head bag.

As he rode off, I heard some villagers coming. Sure, come once she's dead, I thought to myself, rolling my eyes. I couldn't believe they hadn't heard us, but I guess we were pretty far away for them to hear. I realized that I had to get away from the scene of the crime, especially with Emily's blood all over my shoes. I ran as quickly as I could back to the windmill, all the while hearing screams and gasps coming from the field. I smirked, but I concentrated too hard on trying to smirk like my mother that I tripped over a tree branch. This time, I scraped up both of my knees, ruined my ugly yellow dress (which of course I didn't mind), and hit my head again. My forehead was probably the size of a watermelon, but I wouldn't know until I looked at it in a mirror.

I finally reached the field in which the windmill was located, running in it. I saw my mother was now just sitting there, staring at the fire and playing with the skull, waiting for me to come back. When she heard me come in, she smiled and turned to see me. However, once she saw me, her smile quickly disappeared.

"What the hell happened to you?" she asked, not in the way I was hoping she would. "You look as though you cut open your skin and put an apple under there." She surveyed me some more. "And your knees, your dress, your shoes…Miranda, what did you do?"

I blushed and pointed to my forehead. "I ran into a building in town," I said timidly.

Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. "You ran into a what?" she asked, dumbfounded.

"A building," I said again, my voice becoming all squeaky. I looked at my dress and then at my knees. "And then I tripped in the woods. I tripped over a tree root."

She put her hand to her forehead, obviously frustrated with me. "Miranda," she said with her eyes closed, "Try and work on being less clumsy please."

I dropped my head. "Yes ma'am. I'm sorry," I said apologetically.

She opened her eyes and took her hand away. "It's alright," she sighed, taking another look at me, "Just as long as the Horseman got his job done." She looked at me hopefully.

I tried yet again to smirk like her. "Yes, he did," I said excitedly.

My mother jumped back in fear. "Miranda," she said to me with a look of terror on her face, "Don't make that face ever again!"

I frowned. "I'm sorry. I won't."

She sighed again, this one much deeper than the last. "Well, as long as he did his job, it's alright," she said. The look on her face said, What am I going to do with her? But I didn't mind. I was used to that.

She looked around and started packing up. "We had better get going," she said, "Before Baltus gets suspicious of where we are."

I nodded quickly and bent down to begin helping her. As we were crouched side by side, she suddenly stood up where she was. She looked me over again.

"Miranda?"

"Yes?"

"If anyone asks," she said, "You had a run in with a bear."

I looked at her, unsure of what to say. "A b-bear?" I stuttered.

"Yes," she said, "That way you can gain some sympathy from people."

I shrugged. "Alright," I said, glad that some people may be sympathetic towards me. We finished packing and went back outside. It was much cooler than it had been, but that's how it always was after the Horseman would strike. We quickly mounted our horses and rode back home.