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The Zoetrope had always been fascinating for Liam. For a poor boy who lived on a farm it almost gave of a magical feeling when he spun it. The spinning picture was of a man running who then trips and falls. The paint was chipping though. As it had been bought at an old shop of used items. The end was the most torn up. As if when he hit the ground the man fell to pieces. The boy looked past it though, he loved the way it told a story, even if a brief one. He imagined it as greater than what the zoetrope portrayed, that he had been running from a monster before being torn to bits. It was a morbid idea, but in the post-antebellum year of 1910, morbid was okay.

“You sure do like that thing,” the woman in the front seat of their Model-T smiled back at the little boy. The man next to her gave a delighted chuckle. They were his father and his mother.

His father had just gotten a promotion at his job in the city in the past year and now they were going on vacation. The boy had never dreamed of leaving his hometown, let alone the country. For someone who was used to living off of rations to eat until their next paycheck, praying he didn’t get sick, this was phenomenal.

“I mean, we’ve come a long way. I think this is proof of our journey,” the boy, Liam, whom now was seventeen years of age replied. It had been several years since his mother had bought it for him and a couple years since he and his father had started working for a bigger company. The promotion had gotten their family more than enough money, whereas at the time they had barely been able to buy the zoetrope.

“You’re right about that,” his father chuckled, “Ready for Ireland?”

“Of course, I heard that the coast is much prettier than it is here, the mountain range too,” he smiled widely and looked out the window at the Appalachians in the distance.

The ride was nice and the tone was light then, soon they made it to the docks. The trip felt longer than a lifetime for Liam, though anything was better to him than the stuffy life at home. Working became tiring at times. But after some time the shore came into view and Liam excitedly waited for the ship to dock. The boy couldn’t be more elated than he was in this moment. It was a marvelous feeling to be away from home, especially when it was all he had seen for a better part of his life.

“Now Liam, you know to head straight to the inn first so you can change,” she told him while patting his hair.

“Yes, ma’am. Then you don’t mind if I explore right?” He grinned at her in hopes that his wide smile would urge her to let him do as he pleased. Though she looked like she was contemplating for a moment.

“Come on, let the boy have his fun,” his father told her with a hand on her shoulder, “He’s young, plus he can’t get too far on an island.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she nodded and smiled to the teen who cheered and went to the inn to unpack. Not even a moment later he was off though to explore the forest to the side of town. Being able to run off on his own once rather than work was thrilling to say the least. Not to mention the fact that the forests here felt more like forests than they did in industrial America.

He could actually climb the trees and float in creeks, rather than just rolling around in the grass. Long hours of the day were spent here and soon it had reached the afternoon. He swung from a tall branch, dangling by his legs as he tried to burn off all of his energy.

“You’re very silly you know?”

Liam sat up quickly when he heard a voice giggle at him. He looked around for the source of the voice but couldn’t really find anything.

“Hello?” he called, hearing no response in return. The boy reached up to hang from his hands now so that he could get a better view of his surroundings, “You think I’m silly?”

“Yes, I do,” the voice responded from behind him and he turned around, but there was still nothing there. He furrowed his brow and dropped from the tree, stumbling for a moment as his feet hit the ground. His blistered hand ran through his brown hair, pushing the curls from his eyes so that he could see better.

“How so?” he asked the voice, intrigued by it.

“Your accent is funny,” the voice called back, “And you swing in trees.”

“I think yours is funny,” he said back, “And there’s nothing wrong with having a spot of fun on vacation. That’s what it’s for anyways.”

“Vacation? You’re a foreigner?” the voice sounded more excited and childlike than he had anticipated. It held a weird and mysterious beauty to it, “We don’t get a lot of visitors here.”

“I’m American, from across the Atlantic,” he searched the nearby bushes for the source of the voice but was finding nothing. It was odd to him, she sounded so close.

“America… I see,” they giggled again and suddenly when Liam turned around there was a girl standing where he had been under the tree.

She seemed around his age with all white hair, her pale skin and white dress and scarf matched and made her look like a doll. She had bright purple eyes and a glowing grin. All of this seemed to be brought into perspective when the sunlight shone down on her through the trees. Liam felt frozen, as if she was an angel sent down to speak to him.

He took a moment and cleared his throat, “Uh… hello there,” he turned all the way around so that he was facing her, though he was a good ten feet away from where she stood, “My name is Liam.”

“Hi Liam,” she waved with a shy giggle, “My name is Katie.” She stepped closer to him while he was awestruck and smiled up at him.

“So Katie…” he looked down to the girl for a moment. She looked around his age, maybe a year younger, “What do you do for fun around here if swinging from trees is silly?”

“Well, do you mind if I show you?” she asked, turning on her heels to begin walking into the forest. Liam watched her for a moment before quickly jogging to catch up and walk next to her. The breeze felt cooler next to her as if she brought the chilly wind on through sheer will. Her hair and scarf flowed along with the wind, accompanying her already magical look.

She brought him to a beautiful field of wildflowers, “How’s this? This is where I play,” she laid in the flowers and rolled around while Liam stood to the side and watched.

“Its pretty out here,” he admitted while looking over all the colors that surrounded the girl. He stepped over to her when he noticed that she had stopped rolling to wave at him. Katie reached up a hand to pull Liam into the flowers next to her.

Liam yelped and fell into the soft flowerbed. His nose already itching just a little because of the pollen. The sound of her laughter though brought him out of his daze as she giggled at him. He looked over with a smirk, “You think that’s funny, don’t you?” he then picked up a flower and smeared pollen on her cheeks, causing her to sneeze and giggle again.

Liam found himself laughing along with the girl for a while until the sun began to set. He looked at the sky, “I have to go now,” he grinned, “but I’ll be back tomorrow with something to show you.”

He saw her huge grin falter weirdly for a moment, and something almost flashed in his vision, but the smile came right back as if nothing had happened. He shook his head, dismissing the weird feeling before waving. She waved back as he left.

Liam went home and ate dinner with his parents. He told them about his trip to the woods and the nice local he had met. They in turn talked about the shops that they had visited and planned to take him too until dinner had finished and it was time for them to go to bed.

The brown-haired boy made it back into the woods later the next day. He looked around the flower field for the girl, and oddly enough he found her in the same exact place that he had left her yesterday, same clothing and all. He wondered if she had even budged.

“Hey Katie, I brought something to show you,” he sat next to her, and strangely found that she didn’t smell as if she had sat here all night. The girl looked over to him with a smile and dancing eyes as he pulled out his zoetrope.

“It’s called a zoetrope, have you seen one before?” he asked as he set the mechanism up to spin. He spun the wheel and lifted it up to show her the image. The man tripping and falling, then breaking to pieces.

“It looks like he lost his head,” she chuckled and poked Liam’s neck.

“It does,” he smiled back, glad she had liked his morbid sense of humor, though the touch to his neck had sent a strange chill throughout his body, and a blush had crept up on his cheeks. Not only was she beautiful, but she seemed to like his company too.

“Come on, I want to show you another place,” she took his hands and pulled him up to his feet. Her path was quick and concise as if she had lived in these woods for a lifetime and gotten to know every nook and cranny it had to hide things in.

“Here!” she broke out of the trees onto a stone outcropping that overlooked the sea. Liam could hear the waves crashing against the rocks as soon as he was out of the cover of the forest. It was a truly breathtaking view, distracting him from the fact that she was still holding his hand.

Katie led him to sit down and she sat right next to him as they listened to the waves.

“You know they use to say that if you listened closely enough to the waves here that you could hear sirens calling you out to sea,” she hummed and leaned against his arm.

Liam blushed deeply and mustered the courage to lean back on her, “Really? Did anyone fall in going after them?” he chuckled morosely.

“Mhm, many men fell victim, so they stopped building houses over here,” she mused.

“Stop teasing,” he chuckled and closed his eyes to listen to the waves. Another story he heard about this area came to mind, “The townsfolk told me that the headless horseman used to live out here. From what I heard the beast has wracked up a kill count of twenty in the past 50 years.”

“Is that so?” she hummed and hugged his arm, “You’ll have to protect me then…”

“Y-yeah, of course I will,” he gulped when she held his arm and he felt his heart rate bump up drastically. For a moment he forgot that he was leaving in two weeks. He felt like he could sit here and trade stories about folklore with her forever. So that what they did until sundown.

A week went by and Liam went to visit Katie practically every day. They told stories back and forth, Liam even telling her about a few myths from America.

“Do you believe in the headless horseman, or sirens?” she asked one day after a few moments of silence between them. She was resting on his arm, playing with his hand. Liam himself had gotten used to this and found it quite endearing as he watched her.

“Hmm, I don’t think that I do,” he said matter-of-factly, “Stories about monsters are just fairy tales. Nothing more, I think.”

“I see,” she smiled and pulled a camera out of a bag that she had brought this time, “How about a picture?” She smiled and sat in his lap. He felt flustered for a mere moment before putting his arms around her softly and leaning his head on her shoulder. He smiled widely for the camera.

After the picture was taken, she turned to face him, “You silly boy,” she giggled and cupped his cheeks.

“What did I do this time?” he sighed in amusement.

“You’ve gone and saved me from being lonely,” she told him with the softest of smiles, “I had no one before I met you, Liam. You set my heart aflutter.”

Liam heard the words and felt his own heart skip a beat, for all the right reasons. He was about to respond to what she had told him, but by the time he was pulled back into reality she had already pressed a soft kiss to his lips. The poor boy’s eyes went wide as he stared at her serene face.

She parted and looked at him with a small laugh, “You look so dumbfounded, silly boy.”

“I was just kissed by the girl of my dreams,” he murmured in a daze, but his heart clenched when he remembered he was leaving soon. He looked to her with sorrow filled eyes. She didn’t seem to quite understand at first.

“Liam what’s wrong?” she asked softly as she spoke to him.

“I’ve… gotta go home in a few days,” he told her sadly.

Her entire expression shifted to one of panic, “N-no, you can’t leave me,” she said in a slightly frantic tone, “Stay here with me, we can live together you and I!”

Liam was shocked by her change in demeanor, and it broke his heart. He almost caved in… then he looked to the side at his zoetrope. The boy closed his eyes softly and turned his head back to hers. His gaze never found her eyes and stayed on the ground, “I can’t leave my family.”

The sentence was short and blunt and con eyed everything that needed to be conveyed between the two. Liam looked up and expected to see hurt… and he did. Deep insurmountable sorrow. He hugged her and she broke into a sob. He felt awful for this, but he couldn’t leave his family to the farm and the company on their own. He didn’t have any siblings to help run either.

After a while he thought she had calmed down. He definitely planned to try and visit again if he ever could. He figured they could send mail and pictures and check up on each other through the telegraph too.

He hadn’t realized how late it was when he was broken out of his thoughts by a noise in the distance.

“Liam…!” it was his mother calling him, likely worried about where he was.

“I have to go,” he told her gently, but when he looked to her face, he didn’t see sorrow or hurt. He saw pure rage, “K-kat?”

Katie stood and Liam didn’t understand where she was going or what her anger was directed at, “Katie, what’s wrong?” he took her hand, but she yanked it away before running into the forest.

Liam was worried and ran quickly after her. His heart was pounding as he followed the white of her dress, but suddenly it seemed to vanish. Liam gulped and kept running, now following his mother who was still calling for him.

When he got to her his eyes widened in disbelief.

In front of him was his mother trembling on the ground while Katie sat upon a horse made of bone and flame. She held a chain whip and stared at his mother in deep contempt. Her eyes held a fire that Liam didn’t like seeing there.
“Katie what the hell!?” he stepped in front of his mother, between her and the horse.

“I’ll have you Liam… I’ll get rid of the distractions,” she glared at his mother, almost as if she didn’t see him. Liam felt his stomach twist painfully.

“Stop it, you’re scaring me Katie…” he said lowly as he backed towards his mother, “We can’t be together, I’m sorry. I know it hurts-“

“YOU KNOW NOTHING!!!” Katie hissed and her purple eyes glowed like fire as she looked at him. Her horse stepped closer as he stepped away and he began to realize the utter danger of the situation. He grabbed his mother’s arm and began running.

A cry of anguish rang out behind him and he felt his blood rush to his ears, blocking out every noise save for the rush of hooves behind him and his deafening heartbeat in his head. His stomach dropped when he heard the hoofbeats getting closer and he decided to take a sudden turn to try and through her off amongst the trees.

His mother was trying her best to keep up, but as every second passed he felt as though she wasn’t moving quick enough. “There!” she pointed to a mansion in a forest grotto. It looked old and unused with vines growing over the sides, but Liam paid that no mind as he rushed inside, shouting for help with his mother right behind him.

After a moment or two he realized that the mansion was empty, so he made his way upstairs, picking a cluttered room to try and hide in with his mother. When they sank behind a desk, he felt the intensity of what was happening hit him.

“M-mom-“ he looked to her in fear, but she put a hand over his mouth quickly, holding him close to try and soothe any noises that he was making. It was hard to hear past his shallow breaths and heartbeat, but he soon heard the click of footsteps down the hall.

The footfalls were quiet and slow and for a moment… they stopped. But soon the silence was broken when they heard a door down the hall slam open. It was immediately followed by another and another as the loud noises became closer and closer.

Suddenly this didn’t feel like a sweet romance anymore… it turned into a horrible sense of dread and feeling of impending doom. It felt as if each breath he breathed led her closer to them, he held his breath as the banging began to crescendo, reaching a booming volume as she neared the door.

His mother shook against him as the door slammed open and the air around them went stiff. The pause in the noise made for an eerie feeling of death. He could here every little thing in the room, which made his heartbeat loud. He felt like she could hear them…

She stepped into the room leaning over the desk slowly as she surveyed the area…

“Liam… don’t leave me… we could be happy…” she said in a sad tone that almost made him believe that she didn’t want to hurt them. He looked to his mother who shook her head in fear, and he realized she was right. If he gave away their positions, they were goners.

“Liam… do you remember that funny story you told me…?” she hummed, and her heels clicked against the stone floor. He huddled up further under the desk with his mother. “I do. You said that the headless horseman was responsible for twenty deaths here in the past 50 years. If you come with me… the number won’t have to rise to twenty-two…”

Liam’s eyes widened as he looked to his mother. Tears gathered in his eyes and he bit his tongue harshly to hold in the sobs of grief and fear. He felt like a total sucker and a complete fool. They were going to die because of him. His mother rubbed his back and held him close.

“Liam…” she called his name softly yet again, and there was a clicking noise. He knew it well. It was the sound of his zoetrope running, “Please come out… I want to give this back before you go…”

He kept up his silence and heard a growl of frustration from her. She stepped forward for a moment, terrifying him at the sudden lunge, but soon she retreated out of the room.

He and his mother hid for three days, waiting for someone to come find them. They could hear the girl’s wails in the distance. She was checking each room thoroughly, which gave them time to move rooms as needed. But Liam was hungry… and tired… he hadn’t slept or eaten or had water. He wondered sometimes if dying was better than this hell. His mother’s soft words always brought him back though. She told him she knew that they would get out and see their father again, and he constantly apologized for everything.

They heard her at the end of the third day in a distant room and Liam decided that tonight they were making a run for the door. He led them to the hall and slowly crept down the stairs, they were home free, the door was right there… but…

Liam looked out the opened doors and saw yellow glowing eyes in the distance. It was the horse, staring them down from he woods. He gasped and turned to his mother, but it was too late.

With a sickening grunt a knife plunged itself through his mother’s chest. Her eyes widened at the sight and Liam reached out to her before the knife was pulled out harshly. The woman fell to the floor with a thud… blood pooling around her as she gasped for air.

He grabbed her and shook her a little, “Mom! No!” he was in complete shock, body freezing up as she went limp before he could even turn her over. This wasn’t supposed to happen on their vacation. He was supposed to spend time with his family… and grow closer than they had been at home.

He felt his stomach wrench at the awful smell of blood that seemed to cling to her and to him and he gagged, turning away to empty the contents of his stomach harshly. His head spun at all the things happening at once, discombobulating him.

“Liam… I solved the problem…” he looked up to her when her voice rang out, her white scarf was gone, revealing horrid stitches that kept her head attached to her body. The once beautiful tone made his ears feel as if they were about to bleed. Fear shot through him as his blue eyes caught her wide purple ones. Her face was formed into a grin and she held the large knife that cut his mother.

“Twenty dead… none were compatible. I tried so hard to have a friend that I could keep,” she stepped towards him and he stood to run back up the stairs since her horse was blocking the door. “How many steps did the man in your zoetrope take before he fell?”

It was as if fate had shackled his legs, after his third step he tripped on the stairs, and he felt her sit on his back, “I like you Liam… you don’t have to leave…”

Then blank. He felt a horrible pain in his neck that surpassed anything he had ever felt before in his life. He sobbed and waited for himself to join with his mother in the afterlife. But the warmth never came. The pain never ceased. The smell never dissipated.

Liam opened his tear-filled eyes to see the carpet of the main hall. His head wasn’t sitting right though… he could see his arm, but it was like it was settled around his head.

He looked to a broken mirror and realized that his head was clutched in his arms and being held to his torso by his body as if to protect it. His hair had turned a stark white and his eyes glowed pink and shone with fear.

“It worked!” the girl cried in relief and went over to hug him, “I love you Liam! I love you so much!”

He sat there, processing the horrors that had just gone on. Realizing what she had done his voice and eyes faltered, “What have you done to me…?” his intonation took on a new low that the soft boy had never reached before.

“I made you like me, we can be together now,” she smiled and held him more, stitching his head on lovingly like her own.

“You’re a monster…” He growled deeply then pushed her away while she stitched, causing his head to sit at a gross angle, “I could never love a beast like you!” he spat. Rage filled his pink eyes and all he saw was red.

Between the heartache, his mother, and now this he was torn apart mentally. The next think he knew he was on top of her, viciously plunging her knife into her chest over and over again. She was a supernatural being, and she struggled for a long while, tears streaming from her face as she yelled at him, saying she didn’t understand. But finally, she stopped moving… and Liam dropped the knife.

For the first time in his life, especially in the past few days, he went totally numb. His tired eyes dulled and looked upon the corpses of those he loved most. His aching knees sank further to the floor. His hollow heart settled down for the first time in days.

There was noise at the door, and he turned to see his father looking on in horror.

“Son… what have you done…?” his voice shook, but Liam’s dead eyes seemed distant and almost looked past him. The man ran off without his son, and he never came back. Nor did anyone.

He laid there for weeks, unmoving as he sat within the mansion that had symbolized the end of his natural life.

The boy’s head looked over to the zoetrope, and he reached a shaky arm out to spin it. The man tripped, and fell, and lost his head. Instead of symbolizing the gift that his mother had given him the zoetrope now felt like a sick play by play of his death. She ruined everything for him. Even this.

“Hey there…” a quiet voice called out into the mansion, “You alright?”

Liam looked to a taller man with glasses, his expression hadn’t changed much over the past few weeks he had laid here, but the threads in his neck had begun to rot and his head tilted to the side. Blood still soaked his shirt, a gross mix of his mothers, his own, and Katie’s.

Liam shook his head slowly in response to his question. Nothing would ever be okay anymore.

“Right…” the man looked to the two corpses, then back to Liam, “Lets get out of here and get you cleaned up for now okay? You can pay me back later.” The man held out a hand for Liam to take, “My name is Eli.”

“I’m Liam…”