eerieindiana | Eerie, Indiana fanfiction: The Stand

Written for Day 5 of the

31daysoffandom October challenge. The prompt I used for this one was "jack-o-lantern". Crossover with Sleepy Hollow.

The headless horseman galloped down the fog-wreathed streets of pre-dawn Eerie. Wisps of blue-white devil's fire licked up from the steaming flanks of his coal-black steed, and the impact of it's great hooves against the icy pavement made the windows in nearby buildings shake in their frames.

At the junction between Front Street and Normal Avenue, Harley Holmes stood atop a barricade hastily constructed from the shattered remains of the Eerie Bandstand. He was holding a grinning jack-o-lantern in one hand. The other kept a tight grip on the black wrought-iron lamp-post. His face was smeared in a war paint of melted chocolate and the sticky remnants of blue and pink candyfloss, and his grin was a sugar-crazed grimace. Flecks of tri-colored candy corn were stuck in his teeth.

Behind him, the survivors of the Eerie Elementary Halloween School Dance Massacre (1993 edition) braced themselves for one last, desperate stand against the oncoming darkness. Their costumes were torn and bloody, their masks askew or simply missing altogether, but they gripped cartons of eggs and rolls of toilet paper in their small fists and their smooth childish faces were frozen with determination.

The horseman turned the corner and slowed to a canter, then a trot. Silver spurs gleamed wickedly under the orange sodium of the streetlights, and his naked blade threw sparks as he dragged it along the ground. The nickering hell-beast on which he rode tossed it's mane and screamed shrill defiance at the assembled children, and they screamed back higher still.

The horseman took a few light-footed, dancing steps towards the barricade, and Eerie's defenders flinched backwards. The horseman gave his sword a flamboyant, mocking twirl. The cool night air hissed and turned to clouds of thin white vapor when it touched the cursed metal.

The horseman charged. The glittering razor-edge of his weapon tore the autumn mist into tattered ribbons as it passed through it, so that the monstrous man and his terrifying mount seemed to emerge from some steaming infernal doorway.

Harley gave a wordless shriek, and from his right, a hundred eggs flew through the air, splattering against horse and rider. To the left, a girl in tear-streaked white pancake makeup thrust a plastic broom up and outwards in a prearranged signal, and a phalanx of third graders let fly streamers of toilet paper drenched in liquid soap. The horseman lurched in the saddle as his horse stumbled.

Harley lifted the jack-o-lantern above his head, letting the undead equestrian take in the view. The horseman threw up one hand, a hopeless plea for clemency. Harley threw the hollowed-out pumpkin high into the air. As it's trajectory brought it back towards earth, he seized a child-sized baseball bat from among the debris at his feet, and swung.

The gourd exploded with the force of impact. The rider reared back in his seat, back arched, uttering a wordless scream that was audible even though he had no mouth and his vocal chords were long severed. Pulp and seed and glossy orange-colored rind splattered the asphalt immediately in front of the barricade.

The horseman vanished, taking his steed with him. The children gave a ragged cheer. Several of them, overcome by the events of the night, began to cry. The girl in the pancake makeup leaned in to kiss Harley on the cheek, then stole the peaked cap of his Little League costume. Harley threw an egg at her.

Holmes Brothers

The End by