Belltower Field – Day

Spencer and Derek ride to the Western Woods, horses loaded for expedition. At the Belltower remnants, Spencer slows, looking at the wreckage. At the forest's edge and Derek waits. Spencer circles the tower. With a sigh, he rides to join Derek. They head into the woods.

Western Woods – Day

These woods are dark, dense and creepy. Spencer and Derek move through and Derek halts his horse and looks around.

"What is it?"

"Listen."

Spencer listens and looks at Derek. "I hear nothing."

"No crickets or cicadas calling. No bird songs."

It's stark quiet and Spencer notes this unhappily.

A few hours later Spencer's hand drops the needle and straw in the water bowl. The needle spins and the bowl is turned to match the notches. Spencer points the way to Derek.

Further on in the Western Woods Spencer and Derek reach a hill crest and they stop uneasy. They see a cave with a rock archway. An ill-fitting door covers the mouth. The chimney spews smoke.

"We have apparently arrived."

Cave Home – Day

The horses are tied to a tree. Spencer walks to the cave door. Unsure, he hesitantly knocks. And the door doesn't open. Spencer and Derek step in once he opens the door. Spencer shivers when he sees the walls. Skins and skeletons, dry flowers and reed grass in patterns. An old crone sits facing away. The old crone, a mountain woman with matted hair and grey features, sits uninterested and Spencer edges closer.

"Pardon. You did not answer when I knocked. Are we intruding?" Spencer tries to get her attention.

"You are from the Hollow?" she tells them.

"In a way, yes." Spencer looks at tables of gourd bowls of dead insects and acorns. Knifes, scissors, yellow bones. He takes the Lenape's piece of reed grass from his pocket. "The Lenape who lived in these woods…do you know him? The Redman?" He feels uncomfortably waits. "I should tell you…he has been murdered."

"Leave me. You are not welcome here." The old Crone places something on a table beside her…a dead cardinal, bright red.

Spencer is afraid, backs away, but Derek takes the woven piece and steps to the Crone. "Were you a friend to the Indian? You should have this…if you were his friend."Derek puts the woven piece beside the cardinal. He walks to join Spencer in leaving.

"You seek remedy against the Horseman?" The Old Crone reaches to pick up the weaving. She stands, faces them. Tall and Spencer nods. "Go out and keep away, child." She tells Derek. "You stay. Follow with me."

The Old Crone takes a candle and walks, deep into the cave. The Old Crone comes through a passage in the wet walls. Spencer enters, scared, bent under low ceiling. "I hear him. He rides to the Hollow and back."

"The Horseman. Yes."

"Sit." She tells him.

Spencer sits on a crooked stool. The Old Crone kneels with her back to him, gathers straw in a pile on the floor.

"Can you help?"

"You want to see into the nether world…I can show you. Whatever you see, do not move or speak. I will hold him." She gather bowls, putting grass and powder on the pile.

"What…what are you doing?"

She turns to him furious. "Close your mouth! Keep silent." She takes two jars from a table, pours ashes on the pile from one. She shakes the other roughly, takes the lid off and upends it. A baby bat squirms on the floor, dazed.

The Old Crone holds the bat, using a knife to cut off its head. She soaks the straw with blood, speaking in tongues, guttural. Using a wick, she lights the straw. She grasps two metal cuffs with chain attached, slides these onto her bony wrists, then bends to inhale smoke. "He comes now."

Spencer would like to leave now and fidgets in his seat.

Outside of the cave. Derek waits by the horses and looks up. Through the trees black clouds billow and block the sun.

The Old Crone slumps, still with her back to Spencer. She does not move. Wind howls through a hole. It rains and the candle blows out. Spencer stands and is worried. "Excuse me…um…"

The Crone remains motionless. The storm outside Crone's skin on her wrists transform and swelling in the cuffs, hardening, cracking and bleeding. Spencer cannot see this and he inches closer. "Are you alright…?"

The Crone turns, hideous, leaping erect…a half human, half-demon creature. It's black clawed hands reaching. Spencer recoils and cries out. Chains on restraining cuffs yank the creature back. Spencer hits the floor, knocking over a table of bones. The creature is chained, but still wants Spencer. It screeches. The Old Crone's face seethes from transformation, eyes blood red, nostrils dripping and teeth jagged.

"You seek the warrior bathed in blood…the Headless Horseman."

Spencer slides back as far as possible while the creature claws the rock floor yearning for him.

"Follow the Indian trail to where the sun dies. Follow to the tree of the dead." The creature pulls, testing the chains. Behind, the bolt holding the chains to the wall slips. The wall cracks. "Climb down to the Horseman's soulless place and let loose his silent shrieking. Do you hear? Do you hear?"

Spencer nods, quaking, aghast. He glances to the exit.

The chain bolt gives more…coming loose… "He who holds fast the Horseman's desire will guide his reaping hand. Catch hold of his desire."

Spencer runs to the door, terrified. The creature howls, leaping. The chain bolt breaks…Spencer cries out and is tackled to the floor. It is the old Crone who landed on him. She has returned to human form and is semi-conscious. Spencer shoves her off.

Spencer runs out into the howling storm past Derek. "We are leaving."

"What happened?" Derek asks.

Spencer scrambles onto Gunpowder, heading further into the woods, glancing back. Derek follows.

Western Woods – Early Evening

It isn't raining anymore. It's dark.

"Follow the Indian trail to where the sun dies. To the tree of the dead."Derek looks back. "Maybe we passed it by."

"How could something named the tree of the dead fail to draw attention?" Spencer asks sarcastically.

A bird cries out and it startles Spencer and he looks up. The bird is heard alighting and leaves floar downwards.

"We should not go much further in this murk."

"Should we go back?"

"We are far from the Hollow." Spencer dismount and is troubled. "Loath to say it…better to get our backs against a tree and stay till morning."