Synopsis: Hallow

Title: Hallow
Genre: YA/Horror/Dark Fantasy
(Very loosely based on "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving.)

Crane just helped her best friend move into a dorm, far away from their sleepy New England town. She's driving back, unhappy she still has a year to go before college, feeling stuck and melancholy. She misjudges the time, gets a bit turned around, and ends up unable to drive the night through. She stops in a rural village, far off the interstate, too lost to find her way back that night.

There is a Halloween party going on in the biggest house in the center of town. By a series of strange events, Crane ends up there, and dancing with a lovely young woman. Her name is Kat, and they hit it off beautifully. Kat is very bewitching, and Crane--who thought she'd put all this attraction silliness behind her--finds herself unwillingly bewitched.

Things are strange in Hallow, a strange name for a strange village. "Why 'Hallow'?" asks Crane that night when Kat shows her the constellations. "Don't you know what it means?" she responds, leaning a bit closer. Her eyes are shining, but there is no moon, and there are butterflies tumbling against Crane's ribs. "To make holy," Kat whispers, close enough to taste. But Crane does not.

There are shadows in the woods, past sundown. Kat's mother's shop of witchery has strange echoes. It shouldn't surprise Crane that Kat is a witch...but this isn't the sort of witch that she was expecting. Kat's eyes still shine, but there is something there, something more rich and strange than Crane has ever experienced. At times, it's almost frightening, the way she speaks, the convictions she has that no one else does...the way she fidgets with her dark glass pendant, holding it like a song.

There are stories, in Hallow. Stories so strong and vivid, one might almost believe they're alive. There's a beast in the woods, wolf like. There's a murmur of a great snake in the lake. And there are whispers of a headless horseman...

Kat begs Crane not to leave, after two days, but Crane must go. School is starting, her car is fixed...she has to go home. But when she edges out onto the road and steps on the gas, vowing never to come back to this cursed little town, she sees something in her path that is completely unexplainable. Is it the slant of light, in the shadows...or is there a horse rearing in the road, a headless man in the saddle, a flaming skull in his hand...? Crane can not leave the town, each time she does, another misty creature blocks her way. No one listens to her, no one comforts her, but each night, Kat draws her into her room, a spider to a fly...

There are some strange things going on in Hallow...and the only one who could possibly see through them is falling farther and farther under a very dark spell.