Free Sleepy Hollow Sleepover by Ron Roy Page B

around the cabin pulling open drawers and peeking inside cupboards and closets. They found a witch in a closet, a bunch of fake bats in a drawer, and a goblin in the bathroom.
    “Dad, who did all this?” Dink asked his father.
    “Maybe the headless horseman got in here,” his dad said in a creepy voice. “I wonder what he put inside your sleeping bags!” He crumpled some paper and started a fire in the fireplace.
    “Ha!” Josh said. He glanced at their three sleeping bags stacked in a corner.
    The kids finally found the Monopoly game. They set it up on the floor in front of the crackling fire.
    A half hour later, Dink looked up. “Did you hear something?” he asked the others.
    “Don’t try to change the subject,” Josh said. “You’re losing big-time!”
    “I’m not changing the subject,” Dink said. “I heard something, like running feet.”
    Dink got up and walked over to the window. It had grown dark outside. He saw his reflection in the glass and the flickering flames of the fire behind him.
    He heard it again, a thudding noise. Then he saw a light among the dark trees. “Guys, come here!” he said.
    Dink’s father, Josh, and Ruth Rose joined him at the window.
    “What is it, son?” Dink’s father asked.
    “I saw a light,” Dink whispered. “It was moving through the trees.”
    “If you’re messing around, I …,” Josh started to say. Then he gasped.
    A horse raced out of the trees, past the cabin window. A rider carrying a jack-o’-lantern sat on the horse’s back.

    The horse stopped, and the rider held the jack-o’-lantern high in the air.
    “What on earth is anyone doing riding around in the dark?” Dink’s father asked.
    Dink noticed the flowing cloak, just like on the rider he’d seen in the bank window. Only this one wasn’t fake. This was a real man and a real horse.
    Then Dink looked above the man’s shoulders. There was nothing there.
    “I think he’s looking for his head,” Dink whispered.
    “IT’S THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN!” Ruth Rose screamed in Josh’s ear.
    “Lock the door!” Josh wailed.
    “No way!” Ruth Rose said. She grabbed her cell phone. “I’m getting a picture of this!”
    “I’ll go with you,” Dink said. “Coming, Josh?”
    “Not for a million dollars!” Josh said.

CHAPTER 3
    Dink and Ruth Rose ran outside. They were just in time to see the headless horseman gallop past. Ruth Rose held up her phone and snapped a picture.
    The horse and rider disappeared into the trees.
    “Did you get the picture?” Dink asked.
    “I don’t know,” Ruth Rose said. She hit a few buttons on her phone. “Look, I just got a blur. He was going too fast.”
    They headed back to the cabin. Josh opened the door and peeked out. He looked scared.
    “Don’t worry, he’s gone,” Ruth Rose said.
    “So am I!” Josh said. “Where’s the phone? I’m calling a taxi!”
    Dink laughed. “Josh, we’re in the middle of the woods,” he said. “A taxi would charge a ton of money to come out here. And you don’t have any money. Remember, I had to pay for your ice cream today.”
    “Then I’ll walk home,” Josh said. “I’m not staying where guys with no heads hang out. Mr. Duncan, how far is it back to Green Lawn?”
    “Over a hundred miles, Josh,” Dink’s father said. “It would take you until tomorrow night to make it home.”
    Ruth Rose grinned. “If some bear didn’t eat you first!” she said. “I heard there are lots of bears in these woods.”
    “Then I’ll hitchhike,” Josh said.
    “Maybe a certain guy on a certainhorse will pick you up,” Dink said wickedly.
    “You guys aren’t scaring me,” Josh said.
    Dink, his father, and Ruth Rose just looked at Josh.
    Josh grinned. “Okay, you
are
scaring me!”
    “Josh, do you really think that guy had no head?” Dink asked.
    “I saw him, Dinkus,” Josh said. “There was nothing above his collar!”
    “It must have been a trick,” Ruth Rose said. “His head was probably tucked down