September 27th, 2016
Sleepy Hollow, quaint, cozy, scenic, a touristy destination in the Empire State's Adirondacks. The town of over 6,000 people was the largest in the county, surrounded by mountain ridges, dense old-growth forests, and farmland. It's historic center held many preserved sites and homes like the Van Tassel Manor as but one example. It was officially Fall, Autumn had begun, and the kids where back in school. The yellow buses scooping up the youth to deposit them at the doors of Cornelius Academy. The Academy was rather nice given the small town supporting it. Thanks to large investments from the Van Tassels and Von Auguste families. It's marbled entrance and campus was worthy of a small college. Perched on the North End of Main street facing West. It's students wore the deep blue coats and slacks of the school colors, the girls wore sailor style outfits, one of the traditions in the town. Since the Academy was originally a private school.
The cool breeze wafting through the hills and mountains brought sweater weather. The morning fog, dense and dark, rising like a blanket slowly being lifted to the heavens. Spiraling mists from the forests rose like a hundred chimneys. People went about their business, walking too and fro from the many mom and dad stores. Sleepy Hollow still wasn't home to department stores to any kind. You'd have to drive out of your way to find those outside of the County. No, but the town had a thriving economy of its own. It was neighborly, picturesque, as the leaves began to turn from green to a myriad of reds, orange, and yellows. Already leaf peeper tourists where driving through and making a nuisance of themselves.
Van Tassel Manor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU3VTCmCWjs
(Alarm clock)
In the Van Tassel Manor, now inhabited by Katrina von Auguste, the blaring of an alarm clock filled a dimly lit room. A porcelain arm thrashed from the covers to strike the clock. Full of tired anger. Her hair was matted and in disarray. Moving swiftly from the shower to the walk in closet, clothes being thrown in disarray, like a tornado had materialized in the room itself. A half ate bagel dangling from her mouth as the door swung closed behind her. She wore a simple blue dress and black knee high socks. Her hair now freshly combed and cleaned. Rose gold earrings festooned her face. She was pretty, attractive, a town belle. Not the most popular girl during her Academy years but earning a fair following of male suitors.
Making her way to Granny's Diner she walked down Main Street. Saying hello's and good mornings to the passer-by's. Katrina passed Luke's Pawnshop as she looked both ways about to cross the street. "Nice breeze, today, Ms. von Auguste?" Katrina stopped in her tracks and looked behind her to see Lukas Kasymir, commonly referred to as just Luke, with the key to his shop held out inches from the door. He wore a small smile and inquisitive eyes. The eyes of a man who specialized in telling the authentic and making a tidy sum off the attached trade of such items.
"Yes, yes! Very nice but I've always been more of a Spring girl." She returned a small smile as she instinctively moved a strand of hair out from her face. A nervous tick one might guess. Not that Luke was a cause for anxiety. A quiet man, respectable, and generally seen as having peoples interests at heart. Luke chuckled, "Ah yes, Spring, well I won't keep you dear. Enjoy your shift." At that Luke turned away and Katrina smiled as she turned around. Granny's Diner before her. Taking a step she stumbled, catching herself a meter from the road, the flash of a car driven by a youngster going way too fast blazed by. Whipping her hair around her. "Hhh." Eyes wide. Standing up shaking she looked back too see the door of Lukes shop closing. It had felt like someone had pushed her down. Preventing her from stepping forward. Had she taken the few short steps she'd have been hit by the reckless driver. Hopefully someone would get the plates of that bastard and report them to the Sheriff.
Looking both ways she finally crossed the street into Granny's.
Several Hours later
The first thing people heard was the scream, of an elderly Sleepy Hollow resident named Margery Zelle, with her husband Jakob. They had been at the extreme South End of Main Street and she'd just happened to glance over into a side alley. There she saw a pair of legs sticking out from behind a dumpster. A dark stain on the ground around them. Her shrieking didn't stop as people crowded around. It was a gruesome sight. The pair of legs where indeed attached to a torso, but that ended where the belly button would be. Upwards the top half was separated. The right arm several meters away down the alley. A pair of fang marks on the neck.
Katrina walked out of Granny's Diner as the sirens of the local Sheriff's department cruisers could be heard rapidly approaching. Glancing across the Street she saw Luke watching from the steps of his shop. A serious expression on his face. "What's going on?!" said Katrina as she approached the crowd of people. Some cried, others in shock, a middle aged man hurled in the street. A murder. Katrina gasped with hand clamped over mouth. There hadn't even been a violent crime in Sleepy Hollow since 1984. The last major incident was a young girl having gone missing some years before. That was it.
"Oh god its Jonah, Lucardo's boy." The son of the towns oldest family of Bakers. The Lucardo's had been in Sleepy Hollow since the 1860's and ran a small but successful Bakery next to Granny's. The murder was gruesome. A hackjob. Some speculated an animal by the ferocity of the attack. Others noted the lack of struggle. He had died quick and that the evisceration had happened after. Closer inspection would be that his spleen was missing.
"Very peculiar." mumbled someone behind her. Katrina turned to see Luke standing next to her. "What did you say?" exasperated Katrina. Luke looked at her, "I have some medical knowledge. He'd been dead for several hours. But someone would have noticed long before then..." Katrina turned her head and didn't catch what Luke was still saying.
Indeed. The body had been dropped there, specifically to make a scene, the killer wanted people to know.