by Kevin A. Ranson:
White eyes, no eyes, it’s all demon hunting to me (with apologies to Billy Joel).
Called into the station late at night, Abbie is introduced to Dr. Mara Vega by Captain Irving on their way to interrogate a suspect. Crane is already questioning the runaway: Abbie as a child. Forcing her way into the interrogation room, the nightmare takes a horrific turn as a white-eyed Crane and a no-eyed demon terrorize her… until her ringing phone wakes her up.
On an actual night call, Abbie tells Crane about her “prophetic dream” before learning Dr. Vega is real – Abbie never having met her before – and is her sister Jenny’s doctor; Vega is asking to talk to Abbie by name. Just before committing suicide, a white-eyed Vega confesses she knew Jenny wasn’t lying about the things she saw. When Crane and Irving examine the body, Vega’s eyes burst… full of sand.
“We have it coming” were Vega’s last words, prompting a visit to Jenny’s asylum. Abbie remembers Corbin saying not to be afraid of 49 – Jenny’s room number – but “Icky” is the only one Jenny will see. After Jenny throws Abbie under the bus (“Ask her.”) Crane tells Jenny about Dr. Vega and the Four Horseman coming to Sleepy Hollow; Jenny turns him away, her “conscience is clear.”
Crane presses Abbie for the details of what happened to her and Jenny as children. Unconscious for four days before they were found, a man named Gillespie said nothing about catching a glimpse of the Blur Demon when he found the missing girls. Jenny described the creature to a psychiatrist, but Abbie denied it and her sister as well. At his ranch, the no-eyed creature Abbie saw in her dream stalks Mr. Gillespie.
After Captain Irving discovers Abbie’s ex Luke pranking him at the station – gotta love that headless horsecrossing sign – a call out to the Gillespie ranch finds the Witnesses already there, and Mr. Gillespie will only talk to Abbie (“Sounds familiar,” observes Crane). “He’s coming for you next… the Sandman,” the rancher says before killing himself. “The next time you fall asleep, you’re dead.”
While Crane discovers the potency of Abbie’s energy drinks trying to stay awake, both research the faceless nightmare monster. Crane recalls a Native American legend about a dream demon – Ro’kenhrontyes – similar to the Sandman, but only a Mohawk shaman would have the essential details. Abbie reluctantly tells Crane what really happens to the Indians he was so fond of in his era. She knows a guy: the owner of “Geronimoters”– wow, really? – a man named Seamus Duncan.
When Crane mentions fighting the dream spirit by name, Seamus is fearfully put off but is swayed to help. Seamus explains that Abbie can fight the dream demon on his own plane, giving her a Windex-looking tea to make her sleep – right before showing her the scorpion whose sting will let her control her action there. Crane willingly accepts the tea and sting as well – better than the energy drink – and both Witnesses are tied down to do battle with Freddy “Ro’kenhrontyes” Krueger.
In a forest dreamscape, the demon finds Abbie first, throwing his sand in her eyes. Abbie despairs as she watches her younger self deny her sister again. Crane distracts the demon for a moment, but Abbie defeats the creature by confessing her inaction, clearing her conscious and absolving her fear; the Witnesses awaken unharmed.
Captain Irving catches Crane and Abbie napping out in the archive, readily accepting their shoddy excuse of “needing a place to work” and too easily signing off on it. Back at the Tarrytown psych ward, Abbie goes to see Jenny… but Jenny has escaped!
Kevin A. Ranson is the author of The Spooky Chronicles and the vampire thriller The Matriarch. He also the creator/critic for MovieCrypt.com and the “ghost writer” for its horror host Grim D. Reaper (often seen skulking around horror conventions). Find him on Facebook, on Twitter @KevinARanson, and his author blog at ThinkingSkull.com.
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