Dullahan

Story by Tarquin_Dollars on SoFurry

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#1 of Short Stories

I wrote this a while back in one of my english classes, our assignment was to come up with a gothic style story. I turned this story in and got some pretty good feedback from my teacher. I recently found the story while digging through some papers so I figured I'd post it. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. hope you all enjoy!


Charles layed on his bed feeling weak and powerless. His wife, Anabelle, at his side crying and treating the situation as if the world were ending around her. She knew what was happening, but was sitting in denial thinking something could be done, or somehow she could be the cause. Her children were standing behind her, watching every action and reaction from both their mother and father at this grim state. Mary, the youngest of the two children, was confused and did not truly understand the situation, being only five years old she had not grasped the understanding of what death was, her brother Arthur on the other hand knew perfectly well. Arthur, only eight but the oldest between him and his sister, knew his sister did not understand what was going on. Despair took him over and was unable to even acknowledge his sister's cries and voice filled of ignorance. The father, Charles, layed there as he watched his family go through more pain than he, but alas was unable to speak for he was too weak to do even that.

Suddenly, the night got quiet, the storm raged on but was silent. The family was oblivious to this until a thunder clapped across the sky, it was followed by the loud sound of a galloping horse. The family heard the galloping, Charles and his wife both understood what was about to happen, however Anabelle didn't want to believe it to be true. The wife quickly stood up and ran to look out the fog covered window. Upon gazing out into the night, the wife saw a dark figure down the road, very far from them but moving with great speed towards the house. The figure rode on horseback and was followed by a large dark cloud that seemed to swallow everything behind it, due to this site and the darkness, the figure could not fully be made out. Filled with fear and hopelessness, Anabelle began to shake, she began to try finding ways to get out of this, she knew she could not run and knew there was no way to fight what was coming towards their house. She looked out the window once more to see the rider halfway from the house from where it started. The wife panicked, she quickly went back to Charles with tears filling her eyes, she kissed him several times, telling him she loved him.

As quickly as the sound of galloping started, it stopped, however the storm was louder and stronger than ever, making the whole house shake.

Mary was at the window looking out, her head turned back to her mother as Mary shouted, "Mommy, there's someone outside the house."

Anabelle's eyes widened, she quickly turned to Mary as she walked to the door, before Anabelle could even tell Mary not to open the door, it was too late.

Through the open door, the figure stood silently, it wore the armor of a knight but held a bag under its left arm, the knight sat upon a headless black horse. Mary stood in the doorway looking happy that there was company on such a confusing day, she invited the character in with a nice big smile. Anabelle looked at this figure with fear, she was unable to say a word before bolting to the closet. Anabelle came back with a rusty shovel hoping to be able to keep the creature from Charles. As the steel covered figure was about to get off of its horse, the wife panicked and charged the knight, hitting it's helmet with a large crashing sound. The helmet of the figure flew clean off showing nothing else but a headless knight. The knight turned towards the fear filled spouse, silently staring. The wife grew fearful of the creature, almost losing her mind at the sight of the headless rider.

The rider is what is known as a Dullahan. A Dullahan is a headless rider that rides a headless horse throughout the land reaping the souls of the soon to be dead, the Dullahan usually carries its head under its arm.

As the Dullahan turned, it began to take out the contents of the bag from under its arm. Anabelle, frightened by the sight of the fairy tale creature she had only heard of in stories, alerted her attention to the bag as it were dealt with. As the creature pulled out the contents, Anabelle was filled with more horror seeing the head of the beast first hand. The head was that of a black haired women, the eyes were wide open, and a wide smile stretching from one ear to the other. The creature did not talk, only smiled at Anabelle as it reached into the headless area of its body, pulling a large scythe from the inside. Anabelle, not knowing what to do, panicked and charged at the creature once again with her spade followed by a large but terrified battlecry. The Dullahan pulled back with the scythe, quickly slicing Anabelle, making her stop in her tracks. Anabelle's eyes turned black, her whole body collapsed followed by the sound of a last breath leaving her body. The two young ones watch, feeling helpless as if there is nothing they can do, they stand and watch silently at the events taking place, too afraid to do anything.

The Dullahan turns to Charles as he lay there helplessly, giving him a large smile as it pulls back its scythe once again. Charles doesn't hesitate, accepting his fate given to him as he sees the last few movements of the headless knight slicing him with the scythe. Charles' vision goes black and remains that way forever.

As the Dullahan rides off with the souls of their mother and father, the children watch. His sister, Mary, sits down next to her mother's empty shell asking why she won't get up. Arthur, without warning, runs out of the house and runs down the road in the direction the Dullahan had ridden off in, leaving his sister alone in their home. Mary, not knowing what to do, stayed inside the home for days, waiting for her parents to wake up or her brother to return.