The Headless Rider.

Arti stood still, leaning against a tree, eyes shut, trying to calm her breath.
I’ll finally say it! she thought, determination burning in her flushed face.

She opened her eyes and looked around.
"Where’s Rajeev?" she whispered.

She turned back—but the path she'd come from was gone.
Strange...

A chill passed through the air. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Rajeev?!" she called out, spinning in place. She ran searching for him.

"Rajeev!!" Her voice echoed, drowned in the rustling trees. Panic surged. Why... why did I suddenly lose my sense of direction?

"Raje—" She froze.
Her breath caught. Her eyes widened.

There—on the ground—was a skeleton.
No spine.
No head.
Only a hollow, broken frame, sprawled like discarded meat.

She moved near it, "No..." she whispered, her knees giving way.

She collapsed beside the bones. Her trembling fingers hovered over them, unwilling to touch.
Tears welled in her eyes. Her mouth opened, but no sound came.
This can’t be real...

She stood up, numbly turned, and began walking away.
This isn’t true. This isn’t true...
Each step was a denial.

Then—
A sudden shift in the wind.

She turned to the left.

Her eyes widened.

“Ra-Rajeev...?”

There was standing, a horse, black as shadow, its coat glinting faintly under moonlight. It was tall and still, as if carved from obsidian. Its mane flowed like smoke, and its eyes reflected nothing.

Atop of that, was a headless man, dressed in black. And in his left hand...Rotting head, of Rajeev, grinning, with a spine whip on his right hand.

"Rajeev...?" Arti whispered, stepping forward. “Why are you... a Dullahan?”
She choked on the word.
“And where... where is your gold ring?”

The Dullahan said nothing.
He simply grinned with Rajeev’s face.
Then—he began to fade, swallowed by the shadows.

“Wait!” Arti cried, stumbling after him.
She fell to her hands, crawling, reaching.
“Take me too! I can’t live without you!”

Her screams shattered the silence.
Then—
She slammed her head to the ground—hard.
Again.
Blood trickled down her temple.

“Noooooo!!” she cried, her voice raw with anguish.

The silence fell, while the gold ring rested in the ant colony like it was meant to be there…

5.1

The sky above him, so vast, so filled with stars, was as beautiful as ever. His eyes flickered upward, desperate for some relief, some escape. But there was none. All he could do was feel the death creeping into him, gnawing at his very core.

Then, as his vision faded and the world grew silent, dead.

Suddenly, he stood in the middle of a grassy field.

He couldn’t see.
Couldn’t hear.
Couldn’t speak.

Yet—he sensed.

A horse nearby.
And a boy—gazing at the stars through a telescope, capturing the night sky in quiet reverence.

The boy lay back on the grass, lost in the heavens.

Rajeev approached the horse, climbed atop it—as if he was meant to.

And in that moment, he could see again.

The sky stretched above—endless, eternal—as if he were the boy.

Time blurred. He didn’t notice the wind picking up. He didn’t notice the distant sound of branches snapping in the forest.

It was only when the cold began to sting his skin that he came back to himself. He sat up, eyes still lost in the sky. His fingers were stiff, legs a little numb.

He checked his phone. 2:08 AM.

“Shit,” he muttered softly, half-smiling. “Got too carried away.”

He began packing up, gently folding the tripod, carefully unscrewing the telescope lens. The sky still pulled at him, like a lover saying goodbye. He looked up one last time before slinging his bag over his shoulder.

“Beautiful,” he whispered, one last time.

Then, without realizing how silent everything around him had become — he began the walk back.

Something felt off.
The night air had shifted. The wind had died.

He stopped.
A strange chill crawled down his spine. Slowly, he turned his head to glance behind him.

The black horse stood at the edge of the clearing again.

And a figure sat atop the horse —

That’s… a Dullahan! he thought, heart racing.
I can’t die now!

Adrenaline surged through his veins.
He turned—and ran.

But as he ran farther, the world began to collapse.

His vision disappeared.
Sound vanished.
Words died in his throat.

He was back—atop the horse, in the same field where the boy once lay.

Ohh… I was… the Dullahan…

5.2

Days passed.

He wandered—headless, voiceless, with empty hands on the black horse—

And, he found himself again, wandering around on a higher place than last time, until suddenly, he was able to see, the sky again, standing there, he felt like Rajeev again.

He adjusted the focus, and began taking pictures. Click. Click. His fingers worked out of instinct. His mind was elsewhere. He peered through the telescope, watching the constellations slowly shift above him. The Milky Way spilled across the sky like liquid light. He could trace each pattern, feel their presence above him, like the universe itself was leaning down to speak. He walked and walked and walked and the next step he took, his foot hit something soft—earth that gave way too easily.

Before he could react, the ground collapsed beneath him.
He fell. Down into a hole.
A deep one.
He landed hard. On something that moved.
He looked down—his heart froze.
Ants. Thousands of them.
Crawling, swarming.

But he didn’t care.

His gaze rose, still fixed on the night sky he loved.
He found himself out of the hole, even though he wasn't moving.

His eyes closed, not from pain, but from peace.

His head tilted upward—
—and there he was.

The Headless Rider.

He reached down, took the head—his head—into his left hand.
A grin spread across its face.

In his right hand, he took the spine, it turned into a whip.
He turned, ready to vanish into shadow.

But then—

He sensed her.

Arti.

He looked one last time.

She was on her knees, screaming, begging him to kill her.

Her voice cracked with grief. Her forehead bled. Her soul trembled.

He did nothing.

Only watched.

And faded away.

Into nothingness…

5.3

"A suicide?" one of the policemen murmured, glancing at Arti’s lifeless body sprawled against the tree, her forehead bloodied, her fists clenched even in death. "Poor girl must’ve been out of her mind."

Sameer stood nearby, staring at the scene as if refusing to believe it. His knuckles were scraped from punching the earth moments ago.

"If only I'd taken him seriously from the start!" he shouted, voice cracking. He sank to his knees, pounding the ground again and again. “He tried to tell us…”

Veeru stood silent, unmoving, eyes locked onto the skeleton that had been found nearby—with no head… and no spine.

It didn’t look like a simple animal attack. It looked like something had taken those parts. Specifically.

His voice trembled as he finally spoke.
“Did he… turn into a Dullahan? How?”
His eyes shifted to Arti’s lifeless form, then back to the hole in the earth—where something shimmered faintly.

Inside it, barely touched, was the ring.

No blood. No flesh. No footprints.
Just the forest. Quiet. Undisturbed.
As if nothing had ever happened.

But deep in their hearts, they knew—
something beyond reason had taken Rajeev.

Behind the police barricade, a crowd of villagers had gathered — silent, stunned. Their eyes flicked from the lifeless body of Arti to the empty space near the skeleton.

How could this have happened?
It was the only question echoing in every mind.

Whispers floated like mist in the morning air, but no one dared to speak too loudly — as if afraid the forest might hear them.

Veeru broke through the hush, his voice raw, desperate.
"You have to investigate this properly!" he shouted at the officers. "It wasn’t natural… this all started when…"
He stated everything Rajeev had told him.

His words caused a few heads in the crowd to turn. Murmurs rippled.

"The black horse...? The abandoned black horse..."
the old farm man — the one who met Rajeev — muttered from afar, eyes locked on the scene.
Then, without another word, he turned away and disappeared down the dirt path.

                                                                            -The End-

---

Author’s Note:
“Some endings are never happy...”

This is a horror I made, I'm scared if it was good enough? I'm sorry if this turned out the way you didn't expect.
Because I made it as for testing myself that how good I am at writing short story. 

This chapter — and the story as a whole — is open to interpretation.
There are symbols, moments, and meanings woven in that may not be immediately clear. That’s intentional. You’re invited to reflect, connect the threads, and form your own theories based on everything that’s come before.

Nothing is spoon-fed here — and that’s the beauty of it.
Feel free to dive deeper.

I hope the story left a mark on you — even if not a happy one.

Feedback is always welcome.