Dullahan or the Headless Horseman. Part 2

Ms Kelly was now sitting on her knees and thinking. “I know,” she told herself, “I’ll just do it. It has to work. I will just ask that headless horseman what he needs and he’ll leave me alone for sure!” So Mary finally reached her cottage and took her bicycle. “I’m heading to Blarney Castle!” she declared. After a few hours, Ms Kelly reached her destination and parked her bike in front of the castle. It was soon evening, but that didn’t scare Mary at all. In fact, she was expecting to reach her home before it got dark.

The castle was completely abandoned. Mary opened the gates and entered. Then, she saw that the fog was actually coming from inside the castle! Ms Kelly was already in the front yard of the castle when she suddenly felt something in the grass.

She looked down and, to her surprise, she saw a Celtic Knot out of stone. So she walked on to it and stopped. “I came, now tell me, what do you want from me?” shouted Ms Kelly. That sentence echoed from the walls of the castle. She stood there for a few minutes, until she was disappointed by the fact that nothing happened and was about to leave when she heard something… or someone… and again! But this time somewhere else.

“Hello?” Mary called. “Why, hello!” called a voice from behind. Before the poor woman could even start turning around, something sharp cut her neck. In an instant, Mary Kelly’s lifeless body dropped to the ground and her soul would from now on also warn the new victims for centuries, for that was the price she had to pay for her mistake.

That evening, Mr Walsh wanted to pay Mary a visit, but no one opened the door when he knocked on it. “Mary? Are you in there? It’s me, Sean!” shouted Mr. Walsh, as he knocked on the door harder, “Please Mary, what happened?” Usually Mary immediately opened the door to him, no matter what had happened. The lights in the house were off. Mr. Walsh smashed the door with his shoulder and started to look for his friend.

She wasn’t there. Then he saw bicycle tracks in the grass. He climbed on his bicycle and followed the tracks. When he arrived at Blarney Castle, he saw Mary’s bike, lying in the grass. The man suspected that his friend had been murdered. Eventually, he found Ms Kelly’s body on the ground.

“Mary, what did you get into?” he whispered. Suddenly, he saw that a black horse was trying to escape, as well as its horseman! Sean dashed towards his bike. He leapt on it and pedalled after them. When he was close enough, Sean couldn’t believe his eyes. Was that really the mythical headless horseman, Dullahan? That can’t be true! Or could it? But it had to be because he was the only one in the castle.

Dullahan was near the edge of the cliffs. So Sean broke off a part of the bike’s handle and threw it at the stomach of the horse with great force. The horse let out a cry. The sharp pain made the horse leap sideways and it fell off the cliffs, pulling Dullahan, its owner, straight into the depths of the ocean. Sean got his revenge on the killer, which made him happy, but he never forgot Mary Kelly.