December 7, 1779 - Night
When Lillian woke up a few hours later, it was already nighttime. The room was dark, and not just because her hair had fallen over her face. Her crying had caused her to pass out, which resulted in her tears gluing a few strands of dark hair to her cheek, which she moved away from her sticky face. Lillian sat up in bed and looked towards the door, then looked down at her hand, opening it to see her father's cross had made an indent into her palm. Although her palm hurt and her entire right arm was numb, Lillian showed a soft smile, remembering back to a happy memory when she was a few weeks old.
Nikolas Waise was reading from the Book of Genesis, the first chapter from the Bible, quoting the Scripture to his infant daughter while he held her in his arms. Baby Lillian looked up at him with curious eyes as her small hand reached up to take hold of the shiny, silver ornament hanging around his neck. Nikolas halted his reading to look at his daughter, who tried to stick the object into her mouth. He smiled and laughed at her innocence, stopping the child before she could choke on his necklace, let alone cover it with her drool. His beautiful wife, Adrianna, came over to relieve her husband of his fatherly duties, taking the baby away from him so she could hold Lillian in her arms. Nikolas closed the Bible, setting it down before he rose up from his chair and kissed Adrianna, who laughed with him.
Cawing from the raven brought Lillian out of her reminiscing, causing her to turn her head to the left and look at Simara, who was perched on the nightstand, tilting her head questioningly.
"What is it?" Lillian asked.
Simara spread her wings and flew over to the door, landing on the floor, then turned her head to look back at her mistress, cawing loudly. Lillian sensed that something was not right and looked under her pillow, reaching for the dagger, then set her feet on the floor and stood up and walked over to the door. Simara stepped back to allow Lillian some room to open the door so that she could walk out into the cold, snowy night. With the dagger in her left hand, Lillian put her free hand on the railing, carefully making her way down the exterior staircase until she reached the bottom and saw the tavern door was open, a beam of faint orange light coming from inside.
Rather than run and wake up Mr. Mortner, Lillian decided to investigate the tavern by herself. If someone had broken in, she would face the intruder, armed and ready. Hiding the dagger behind her back, Lillian pushed the door open all the way and entered the tavern, finding Cassandra was sitting at a table, holding glass in her hand with a small amount of amber-colored liquid in it. A half-empty bottle was right in front of her. A single candle burned in the center of the table. Although that explained the source of light, the tavern was still cloaked in confounded darkness, adding a melancholic feeling on behalf of the sole patron sitting alone in the establishment.
"Cassandra?" Lillian asked.
The red-haired woman ignored her, raising the glass in her hand a little above her eye level to examine the golden fluid through the crystallize texture of the cup.
"Hello, Lillian", said Cassandra, sounding eerily calm.
Lillian stepped inside and closed the door, keeping the dagger hidden behind her back as she walked over to Cassandra, eying the bottle of half-drunken booze, guessing it was either whiskey or bourbon.
"Cassandra, what are you doing here in the tavern? It's late", Lillian informed her.
"I'm aware of that", said Cassandra, tilting her head back as she downed the remaining alcohol in the glass, licking her lips and sighing heavily before slamming the cup down on the table.
Lillian eyed the empty glass, shifting her worried gaze back to Cassandra, who muttered something as she reached for the bottle to pour herself another drink. When she set the bottle down, Lillian quickly snatched it away with her free hand, as Cassandra brought the cup to her lips to chug down more of the hard liquor, some of it spilling from her mouth, dripping down her chin. Lillian looked to her right and set the bottle on the table next to her.
"Cassandra, if you're upset about something-"
"Upset is when someone's stomach sours and ruins their appetite", Cassandra blurted out, interrupting Lillian. "I'm not upset. Far from it, as a matter of fact. I'm furious. My father thinks of you as a daughter and doesn't care what you do with your life, yet he still expects me to marry to Albert. Well, I'd rather be fucking dead than marry that bastard."
"Cassandra, you're drunk", said Lillian. "You don't know what you're saying."
Cassandra laughed as she lowered her head and brought it back up, brushing her hair out of her face. "No, I think I know exactly what I'm saying", she disagreed, slurring a bit. "Not that you would ever care."
Lillian risked taking a step forward and placed her hand on Cassandra's shoulder. "Come on, I'm taking you home right this instant."
"There's no point, my dear Lillian. My life is over. By the start of the new year, I'll be married to Albert Vaughn, the bastard who asked permission to marry me from my father, the man who ruined my life."
Lillian closed her eyes and made a face that read 'Here we go again' all over it.
"You remember when I was called away from the Van Garrett's party?" Cassandra asked.
"Yes, I remember", Lillian answered, opening her eyes to look at Cassandra. "Reverend Steenwyck asked to speak with you in private."
Lillian backed away two steps as Cassandra rose up out of her chair, still clutching the glass and wobbling a bit, struggling to find her balance. Reaching her free hand out to find some support, Cassandra made an attempt to grab at Lillian's chest, though whether this was accidental or intentional, Lillian hoped it was the former and not the latter. Either way, it was no excuse for her inebriated friend to try and grab her like that.
"He and my father led me into Van Garrett's study and sat me down in a chair", Cassandra explained. "They set me up so that Albert could propose to me. Rather than announce it in front of everyone, my father wanted Reverend Steenwyck and Peter Van Garrett to bear as witnesses so I wouldn't raise a fuss in front of everyone. I had no choice but to accept his proposal, of course. I couldn't say no in front of Father's friends, especially not the reverend."
Lillian shook her head, looking disappointed in Cassandra. Ever since Albert arrived in Sleepy Hollow, Cassandra had spoken nothing but ill against him, acting uncivil and unkind to him. What was it about Albert that she found so offensive? Was there some dark secret she knew about him that Lillian did not? Or was there something else going on behind her drunken madness? Lillian had a feeling the woman's contempt was not entirely directed towards Albert so much as it was at somebody else. Something had happened to Cassandra in the past that she did not want anybody in town to know about, not even Lillian, who knew nothing about her past at all. No visions from the past came to her, which was, in itself, a mystery to Lillian.
"I don't understand you, Cassandra", said Lillian. "If my father gave Albert permission to marry me, I would happily accept it. My mother always told me there's no greater joy a woman feels than getting married-"
Cassandra threw the glass cup down on the floor, smashing it. "Your mother was a fool!" She shouted. "I don't want to marry Albert because I don't love him. I don't even like him. I only agreed to marry him just so I can teach my father a lesson in infidelity."
"What are you talking about?" Lillian questioned.
"You know damn well what I'm talking about."
"No, I don't! Cassandra, what happened between you and your father that made you develop a dislike of men?"
"You really want to know?"
"Please."
"All right, I'll tell you about it. It all happened back when I was a little girl", Cassandra explained. "Before they were accused of witchcraft, my father was very good friends with the Archers, especially Miranda. I didn't think on it too much until I woke up one night and discovered he was missing. I went to the window and saw him heading towards the Western Woods. I followed him deep into the forest and hid behind a tree as he came to a clearing, where Mrs. Archer was waiting for him. Being a child then, I didn't understand what was happening until she removed her cape and stood naked before my father. That was when he started kissing her, groping her breasts. He slid his trousers past his knees and fell to the ground with her, engaging in sin behind my mother's back. I could have told the elders what I saw, but nobody would have believed me, so rather than bring shame to my mother, I kept my mouth shut. I wanted to tell her so many times before, but I was afraid the truth would hurt her too much. When she was lying on her deathbed, I was tempted to reveal the truth to her then, but I wanted her to leave this world in peace. To this day, my father's fornication with that whore was been an embarrassment to me. As of today, I can no longer keep quiet about this."
Lillian was silent, not sure what to make of this shocking revelation. Never in a hundred years would she thought to believe that Mr. Mortner would be driven to betraying his wife, forsaking not only his marriage, but the obedience of God. Her blue eyes widened, showing a vast range of conflicting emotions, her mouth partially opened in a state of shock. She felt lightheaded, ready to faint.
"We've known each other all our lives", Lillian said at last. "Why did you wait so long to speak about this with me until now?"
"I needed to know I could trust you before I understood how I truly felt about you", said Cassandra. "I've always loved you, Lillian. More than a sister or a friend. If you do not believe me, allow me to show you."
Cassandra cupped her hands to Lillian's face, forcing a kiss onto her lips. This resulted in Lillian groaning in disgust, biting the drunk woman's lower lip with her teeth. Cassandra cried out in pain and released Lillian, who backed away and held the dagger out in front in case she tried to assault her again. Cassandra paid no attention to this, as she wiped the blood from her lower lip, glaring at Lillian.
"You still refuse to believe me, do you? Well, let me tell you again, Lillian. Men are unfaithful. You don't know how many sleepless nights I've thought back to the night I caught my father in an act of lust with Mrs. Archer."
"Cassandra, I think it best I get you home", said Lillian. "You'll feel better after you sleep it off."
Cassandra laughed, shaking her head in disbelief. "You just don't get it, do you? Men are unfaithful, Lillian. They always have been, and they always will be. They are as false as the unchristian gods of deviled countries."
"You don't know that."
"Oh, but I do. I've seen how men truly are. I see it everyday of every week of my existence. Men are cruel and selfish and amorous. When they vow themselves to their wives on their wedding day, they don't really mean it when they say 'I do'. They just say the words and commit the sin of adultery behind their backs. They are liars. They're all liars! They lie not only in the eyes of God, but in the eyes of their daughters and bastard sons."
"No! Cassandra, that's not true!"
"YES, IT IS! They're all fucking liars, everyone of them! They're all liars and mongrels, and you know it! Pigs have more honor in their pens than men have in their marriage beds! My father shamed my mother by fucking another woman. He vowed to forsake all others, but that didn't stop him from giving himself over to Lucifer's wife, Miranda Archer. I tried telling you about this before, but you didn't want to accept that. Your soft brain and feeble heart are too weak to grasp the concept of deception and betrayal. Ask any men if he has been faithful and he will feed you lies. They're all liars and-"
Lillian slapped Cassandra in the face, hoping it would snap some sense back into her, but this only ended up angering her more. Cassandra lunged forward and pinned Lillian down on the ground, choking her.
Gasping for breath under the woman's surprisingly strong grip, Lillian turned her head to her right and saw the dagger was lying just an inch away from her. Her eyesight blurred as she tried reaching for the knife with her fingers, succeeding in grabbing hold of it before she brought the blade up to Cassandra's left arm, cutting her. Cassandra screamed in pain and released her hold on Lillian, who rolled over and took in a huge breath of air, coughing due to the lack of oxygen in her burning lungs.
"Cassandra, why are you acting this way?" Lillian demanded, standing up to her full height. "You're not making any sense."
"Sense? Let me tell you something about sense." Cassandra stepped forward, to which Lillian started backing away from the drunk woman who approached her, menacingly. "Sense means nothing to people like you and me", Cassandra continued, moving slow and uncoordinated as if she were a corpse. "That's what men want us to think, you know. That thinking isn't for women like you and me. The only thing we're good and useful for is to serve the men of the house. They want us to stay home and make babies while they go out and live a carefree life, doing whatever the hell they damn well please, but I say the time has come to put an end to that and start life anew where we can live in a world where men and women are created equal in the eyes of God!"
"Cassandra, stop it, please", Lillian begged. "You're scaring me."
"Oh, please", Cassandra scoffed. "You've yet to see anything that scares you." The alcohol clouded her mind, pushing out the fact that Lillian had been through one scary situation before: the night she was raped.
Lillian gasped when she felt her back bump into the wall behind her. Her breath quavered as Cassandra placed a hand on the wall behind Lillian, who turned her head so she wouldn't have to look at the deranged, drunk woman who no longer resembled the friend she once knew. Cassandra was acting as though she were possessed, not acting like her usual self. Whoever this person or creature was, it frightened Lillian, who wished she hadn't come downstairs at all. Please, God, Lillian prayed silently. Don't let this madwoman kill me. Not on this night.
"You know, Lily", Cassandra whispered, licking Lillian's left cheek, followed by her own lips to taste the mixed sample of blood, tears and alcohol still left on them. "I've seen the way men look at you, and you know what? They can't have you. None of them can ever have you, not even your hermit, and I'll tell you why. I saw you first. Many nights, I've dreamed of us locked in a naked embrace, me kissing and groping you while I finger your-"
"Stop it!" Lillian screamed, pushing the drunk woman back before she attempted to run out of the tavern. Cassandra lunged forward again, bringing her crashing down to the floor. Lillian dropped the dagger by accident as she fell, turning her body over in time to see the drunk Cassandra straddle her as she tried to grab at her chest, groping her through the fabric before attempting to rip her dress open. Lillian was reminded of the three drunk men who raped her on All Hallow's Eve, but pushed that thought aside and acted quickly.
Looking to her right, Lillian found the dagger again and reached for it, grabbing hold of the weapon and bringing it up to leave another cut on Cassandra's left arm again. Crimson blood spilled from her open wound, as another pained scream escaped from her lips for a second time. Cassandra got off of Lillian and scooted away immediately, placing a hand on her upper arm before pulling it away to look at the red liquid on her fingers.
Lillian stood up and pointed the dagger in Cassandra's direction, her brow furrowed. "Stay away from me!" She warned angrily. "If you ever come near me like that again, I swear I will kill you. My promise to God."
Cassandra looked up at Lillian with hurt and confusion in her eyes. For a moment, she seemed to have snapped out of her delusional, drunken madness, but the damage was already done.
Lillian kept the dagger pointed towards Cassandra as she walked backwards and felt for the door with her free hand. Once she found it, Lillian turned around to open the door and ran out of the tavern, quickly rushing back up the exterior stairs to the safety of her room. Once she was inside, Lillian locked the door and turned around to lean her back against it, breathing heavily. She looked over at Simara, who went back to perching on the nightstand, then she looked at the blood on the knife in her right hand and fell down to the floor, fainting.