One Big Mistake

Chapter 1: One Hot Summer Day

It was dark in there. It was the kind of darkness that was hot and wet, hard to breathe from its heavy vapors. It wasn't distant and phantom-like, like what the movies show, it was more like a giant animal, and you are under it, sweating and trembling in its oppressive presence.
There wasn't a light to guide the human eye, yet Jodi Keese could feel these hands all over her, some pushing at her back,most gripping at her shoulders and dragging her through. Her legs had long given way by now, her knees now raw and throbbing as they were swept across the floor, which felt rough and bumpy, like cobblestones, and just as wet and slimy that it made her pants moist and clingy.

Jodi whipped her head around her. She couldn't see whoever these hands belonged to, and anyway she had absolutely no idea as to how she came to this place. All she could recall was waking up to the sight of her knees running across the floor, and trying to look around didn't help.
When the confusion got old, she of course fought. She squirmed and yelled, tried to pull her arms off of their grips, and stupidly tried to lean against the force on her back, but to no avail.
Suddenly, a fetid smell hit her in the face, and the numerous sounds of shuffling, faint at first, caused her to stop to listen.
That was when she remembered, and that was also, when real fear finally kicked in.
"NO! Not that!" she wailed, pulling away once more,"Don't let me go there, don't make me...PLEASE!"
The shuffling sounds turned into a flurry of feet coming towards them, and she shrieked in realization; the pigs in front of them squealed and screamed excitedly, scraping their hooves and biting one another in the mad race to getting to her.
The hands were pitiless, never freezing from their determination, and she watched in horror, as she heard the sounds of wood sliding out of a bolt, and a heavy door bursting open...
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Jodi's eyes snapped open.
Disoriented at first, she blinked her heavy eyelids for several moments, until it finally sunk in that something was rattling on the nightstand. Reluctantly, she raised herself on one elbow, and saw, from the light passing through the blinds of a window, that her cell phone was vibrating.
Snatching it, she pressed it into her ear, then realized she had to press the answer button first. Doing so, she pressed it into her ear again.
"H'llo...?" she moaned hoarsely, she then quickly cleared her dry throat.
"Jo! It's me, Philip!"
"Philip?" she echoed, furrowing her brow.
"Yeah, Philip: Uni student and artiste extraordinaire--not an easily forgettable person..."
"Oh yeah! Phil!" Jodi cried, the memories finally sinking in. "What the hell are you doing calling me?"
"Jodi, it should be 1 in the afternoon out there, if I'm correct, and...are you still sleeping?"
The exhaustion that had Jodi in its spell had began to wane away. It not only made her less sleepy, but also made her aware that she is now cold and slick with sweat. Ugh.
"Was." she replied dryly.
"How the...?!" for a moment, Philip sputtered in outrage and disbelief, then he finished the sentence, "Jodi, you're in AMERICA! Back into your mother country, how can you still be sleeping?"
"I know that, Phil." Jodi said, sighing as she kicked off the sheets and duvet and began squirming out of her pajama bottoms. Philip grunted in reply, knowing him well enough to be described as a good friend, she knew it was the kind of grunt of exasperation. Usually it seemed to mean, "Don't bother with me."
"I just..." she fumbled, trying to explain, "I was really tired walking around for so long, I got here using the Tube for chrissakes--"
"Bah. Excuses, excuses..." Jodi could picture him shaking his head. "Look, Jo, what you HAVE to do now is to get up, get dressed, and start exploring. You have to understand that you can't waste your time here; I would kill just to be there with you,IT'S BLOODY SLEEPY HOLLOW!"
"Okay, okay! Look, I'm getting ready now, happy?"
"I'm ENVIOUS, Jo. Although I will be when you come back. Um...do you have your camera with you?"
Jo had left the cell on the bed so she could pull off her top. Retrieving it, she asked if he could repeat that.
He did, and he sounded pissed off. When Jodi answered affirmative, he was back to sounding quiet and apprehensive within the second.
"Can you take some photos...for me? It would really help for my next portfolio..."
"YES." Jodi confirmed, nodding her head.
"You must take LOTS of photos, you understand righ--"
"Yes, I do."
"And don't forget to pick up some info for my family tree!" He continued sweetly, "Remember, it's LANCASTER! Look for Thomas Lancaster!"
"I gotta go, Phil--BYE." she quickly turned off the phone and flung it onto her unmade bed. Shaking her head, she stepped over her piles of used clothes that were discarded on the floor, heading towards the window. Fiddling with the blinds, light soon spilled into the room, causing her to squint for a moment. Seeing how everybody else out there was awake, she sighed again and scratched her head. It seems like Phil was right to call her. She only had three days before she'll have to hit the road again for the south, and she's got alot to do here.
Well, gotta get it over with, then. She thought, picking up her jeans from the carpet. Scavenging through her suitcase later, she managed to find another pair of underwear, and a wrinkled T-shirt which, although pretty old by now, she had chosen for comfort. She had forgotten to pack before her flight, and was pretty much in a drunken stupor when she finally did it, so the suitcase was filled full of clothes balled-up and shoved. She smiled, remembering the party her friends had thrown for her. It was so much more of a hen-night than really a get-together of friends bidding a good-bye.
Still smiling, she laid out the clothes at the crook of her arm and began to head out to the bathroom en suite, now intent in becoming part of the world outside.
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The town of Sleepy Hollow was pretty something; in fact, very different what the legend persists.
Of course, Jodi had expected that, but she had always believed that because of that legend, the locals would go overboard in making it look creepy and halloween-y, just to appease their tourists.
However, she soon found that as she walked through the sections of the town, it was much more like in the town she had (sort of) grown up in. Like any army brat from the states, much of her childhood was spent traveling from country to country, right until her parents decided to stay in quaint little England to raise their brood. By then, Jodi was already a teenager; but she settled in well enough to get used to it, even growing to loving it. After spending the rest of her life in England, she knew that there was nothing more fantastic than English summers. Thus, she was delighted when she stepped out her motel room, that although it is warm, it still carried a nice, cool breeze, while everything around her was lush and in a loud, startling color of green.
Jodi smiled to herself when she finally found her destination. Philip had practically bugged her relentlessly to check the place out; since he had always been proud of having an ancestor that once lived in this legendary town, and that was why she had decided to start her first day in Sleepy Hollow by visiting that one place. Just to shut him up.
Jodi strode towards the Old Dutch Church, which to her surprise looked pretty new. Back in England, most seemed to waste away under the continuous rain, and nobody ever bothered with the amount of moss and weeds that threaten to crack open the aged stone.
The Old Dutch Church, on the other hand, looked far neater and sober, although a bit dark and austere, formidable even. It made English churches looked more like clay models done by kids.
Jodi quickly took out her camera and flashed a few pictures of it. Philip will love this. Moving closer, she continued taking them, and scurried about into getting different angles of the front, not even caring how ridiculous she looked. After all, this is a tourist attraction, and the world is full of fools.
Feeling satisfied, she left the camera hanging off her neck by its strap, and made her way towards the gates of the cemetery.
Pushing past the gates, her mouth opened in awe at the sight of it all.
"Wow..."
It was all she could say. Truthfully she can given the company, but she didn't really want to break the peaceful silence of the scenery.
It all seemed very pristine, all the headstones and monuments were set as they were in the beginning...
And there were SO MANY.
Jodi had NEVER seen so many headstones in her life, all of them in different styles, from simple to the most ornate, from small to huge, and even tombs littered the land. Jodi stepped into the silent land and ran her hand over the tombstones as she walked, her eyes roving over the many names and epitaphs.
Jesus...she thought, Philip wants me to find his ancestor HERE?!
The realization had hit her head like a rock, sobering her from being mesmerized. There were just too many. By the time she's done with this place, it'll probably be dusk by then. Good lord.
Scowling, she thought about calling Philip that he should call a specialist , not a uni girl, who's trying to enjoy herself as much as she can in traveling while her summer vacation persists. But then, the thought of telling Philip that made her mentally balk at the idea. For a guy, Philip can be emotional, a real drama queen. So telling him that would probably turn their relationship from friends into enemies.
He would NEVER forgive her, and he would ALWAYS remind her of that.
"You're not from around here, are you?"
"Hm?" Jodi looked up, startled for a moment by the voice. She did a double take when she realized that the owner of the voice was standing right next to her, squatting in front of a plain headstone.
She looked like an elderly woman in her sixties, with short curly hair dyed bright yellow, a sharp contrast to her wrinkled skin which was sun-burnt red.
She was also wearing a blue sun-dress, exposing her fat wrinkly arms quite nicely.
As Jodi stared, the old woman looked at her and smiled.
"You looked it really; there are a lot of Hispanics living here lately. Although I would say the camera gives it away."
"Oh! Y-yeah, I'm just a tourist." Jodi exclaimed, smiling sheepishly.
"I see." The old woman acknowledged, nodding her head sagely, "Where are you from? The accent seems to be from the far north."
"It's complicated."
Jodi let out a laugh at this, but cringed when she thought how nervous and fake it must have sounded. She then fumbled on to explain.
"Really, I travel a lot; but I was born in Barrie, that's where my dad's from, so I guess I got the accent from him."
"Canada."
"Mh-hmmm." Jodi nodded, glancing at the tombstones once more.
"What about yourself?" She added, trying to sound polite, "Did you live here for long?"
"All my life. I'm the town witch, you know."
Jodi stared at the old woman, noticing the smug smile planted on her features.
"Oh, really?" Jodi asked, trying not to sound nonplussed. Somehow this tidbit of information caused her respect for the woman to dwindle. She had always had a dislike for those they think they possess an aspect of the supernatural, especially those who use it as a profession.
"You don't believe me?" The woman inquired. Jodi flinched, for a minute there she thought the old woman had read her mind.
"I didn't say that."
"But you don't believe me." The woman continued, standing up and crossing her arms over her chest. She looked up at Jodi with a challenging glance in her eye.
Not wanting to meet her in the eye, Jodi looked at everywhere else. She soon saw that the shadows were darkening in the cemetery, and that the hour is getting late.
She still had to see whether this Lancaster guy was buried here.
"You know it's rude to ignore people." The woman continued, still staring at Jodi.
"Look, I don't have time for this, I'm sorry." Jodi finally said, and began to walk towards the church.
"People used to always respect their elders back in my day!" The woman called out. She then dogged her as they went towards the gates.
"It's always with you PEOPLE!" The old woman snapped, "You never care for the truth, all you want is a damn show like I'm some kinda actress or something!"
Jodi shut her eyes and let out a groan, that hag is still following her. Hopefully the woman would get worn out and go back to whatever she was doing.
"Excuse me! Are you even listening to me?"
Control yourself, stay in control...
"I can put spells and hexes on people, you know! You'd better turn around and apologise before I turn you into a bull frog right now!"
She was almost at the gates, just a little bit longer and maybe...
"I can curse you into a life of poorness and hard work, I can curse your kids by makin' 'em ugly as hell, d'you want that? DO YOU WANT THAT?! HUH?!"
"What do you want from me?!"
By then Jodi had already turned around with full fury. The words pushed her off the brink of tolerance, and right now she was as madder than she had even been.
"I want you to apologise!" The woman answered, shaking a balled-up fists at the younger girl.
Taking a few deep breaths, Jodi steeled herself.
"Alright, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, okay ?"
The old woman let out a rude noise, "What?! That's all you got to say? I'm a witch, honey, I can tell what a lie is! And right now..."
"Oh, just STOP it!"
"With what?! Don't patronize me!"
"I'm--not--patronizing--you!"
"Yes, you are!"
"Alright, fine! You want to know what I really think?! You're taking this...this make-believe thing too far!"
"I'm not pretending!"
Jodi huffed, why was she wasting her time with this crazy bat?
"You know what, I'm getting outta here." She spat, turning on her heel. The expectation of the woman following her again made her tense up, but as she walked further, past the gates and out to the front of the church, the sounds of footsteps did not follow her. She couldn't help herself looking back, staring at the old woman at the gateway, her meaty hands at her hips.
"I'll make you wish you've never spoken to me like that!" The woman called out, "Watch out! For soon I'll get my revenge."

But Jodi scoffed and dismissed those words with a cold shoulder. As she headed towards the front doors of the church, the only thought that remained was whether the old biddy was just plain senile.
In that sense, she was only half-right.