Friday after school, Mia found herself walking with her five friends over to Anna's apartment. They'd decided to put their plan into action that night instead of on Saturday like Mia had originally thought. She'd been outvoted when Carmine pointed out that it was better to get it over with as soon as possible. Besides, if they went on Friday night instead, they wouldn't have to spend all day Saturday dwelling on what they were about to do. Mia had thought that was silly, but as soon as school let out, she realized all she could think about was that stupid Dullahan. Now, she was actually glad they'd decided to go on Friday night. Who knew school could be such a great distraction?

Carmine thought the most likely time to spot the Dullahan would be right around midnight, so she and Mia had each asked their parents if they could spend the night at Anna's. Mia didn't know exactly what Zev and his friends had told their parents about why they'd be out so late; all she knew was that they were going to be facing the Dullahan right alongside the girls.

Mia looked over at Carmine. She'd been expecting Carmine to bring a bag or two full of things to use, but unless she'd stuffed everything into her backpack, it didn't look like she'd brought anything special with her. Maybe she'd dropped it off at Anna's earlier, she reasoned. But when they finally got there, Mia was surprised to see it looked just like it always did; nothing had been brought over as far as Mia could see. And when Mia asked about it, she almost wished she hadn't. It turned out that they weren't actually going to be taking anything with them except the same gold pieces that they'd used on the banshees. Apparently, that was the only thing they could find that might work. Suddenly, Mia knew exactly why Carmine was so nervous about this whole thing. She began trying to come up with reasons to put this off as Anna searched her closet for more gold coins to give Zev and Conner.

Anna only lived about a half an hour's walk from the woods. Normally, Mia would have thought this was a bad thing, especially since Anna lived alone. But she knew it wouldn't matter after tonight – one way or the other, they weren't going to have to worry about the Dullahan anymore.

At 10:30, the group headed out. The walk seemed to take forever, and Mia found herself thinking about all the things that could go wrong. She hadn't been worried before, but knowing that all she had to protect her from whatever was out there was an old coin was making her reconsider that. Once or twice, someone made a comment, trying to lighten the mood that had settled around the group. But each time, they only received minimal responses and most of the trip was made in silence.

After about twenty minutes, they turned left onto a wide, sweeping street that bordered the woods. They passed a bus stop a few minutes later, and Mia came to the sudden realization that she was now going down the opposite way on the very same road she'd been on the night she saw Zev. She glanced automatically up to the sky, even though she knew the moon wouldn't be full tonight.

Once the guardrail finally ended, they walked down the slope and into the trees. Figuring that they'd be able to cover more ground, they split off into pairs: Mia and Zev, Anna and Luke, Carmine and Conner. Each group was about ten feet apart with Carmine and Conner in the center, so that Carmine could call out anything if they needed to suddenly change their plans.

Sitting in the leaves for almost an hour had been surprisingly boring. Mia would have thought the danger of the situation would keep her on edge, but it turned out that wasn't the case. She'd whispered quietly with Zev, but for the most part all she did was keep a watch out for anything that might be moving in the trees.

At 11:50, everyone got quiet. Mia let out a deep breath, trying to prepare herself. At 11:55, Mia's eyes started darting frantically around, waiting for something to appear at any minute from behind a tree. Finally, Mia heard the distant sound of the clock tower downtown chiming. Midnight. Her heart leapt into her throat. This was it – any minute now, it would appear.

Five minutes after midnight, Mia was still glancing at her watch. Well? Where was it?

"Are you sure it was supposed to come at midnight?" Zev called out quietly. It was just loud enough for Carmine to hear, and maybe Anna and Luke on the other side.

"Of course not!" she hissed back, and Mia could hear the annoyance in her voice. "How am I supposed to know when it'll actually show up? I told you – all I can do is guess!"

Zev laughed quietly. And when Carmine mumbled "You guys expect so much." it only made him start to snicker all over again.

They waited five more minutes, and Mia began to wonder if Carmine was wrong after all. She shivered slightly, vaguely aware of the cold for the first time that night. She peered through the thickening fog, trying one last time to see if anyone other than her friends was there.

As the fog continued to roll in, Mia thought she heard something coming down the road up above them. Zev heard the noise at the same time she did and cocked his head to one side to listen. Mia turned her attention back to the road, concentrating as hard as she could. The sound started out faint and indistinct, but as it got louder Mia could hear a distinct clop-clop, clop-clop, clop-clop. Hooves. On the pavement. But there was something wrong, something a little hollow about the noise. Mia crouched down even further in the leaves, until her face was just inches above the ground.

It wasn't long before a black horse came barreling around the bend in the road, carrying someone with it. The horse raced so fast that Mia could barely see it. It wasn't until the rider pulled the reigns, stopping the horse right across from where Mia and her friends lay hiding, that Mia was able to get a good look at him and his horse.

The horse's skin stretched tightly over its bones, and its eyes glowed like fire. It snorted and shook its head. As it rose up on its hind legs it neighed – a high pitched sound that seemed more like a scream. Mia couldn't tell if it was a trick of the fog, or if smoke really was coming from its nostrils.

Riding on top of the demon horse was a man dressed in black from his shoulders to his feet. The collar of his cloak was turned up, and where his head should have been Mia could see nothing but tendrils of smoke rising into the sky. In one hand he held a long, white whip. It was notched every couple of inches and got thinner as it went. Mia tried not to look at it, suspecting it was made of bone. In his other hand, the rider held his own head.

The head seemed to be a somewhat blotchy mix between gray-white and fuzzy green. It glowed with an unearthly light and he held it up in front of him like a lantern, lighting his way. As he held it up, Mia could see the lipless grin slashed across its face. The eyes were tiny and black, darting around in all directions and reminding Mia of flies.

Mia just sat there for a minute, too terrified to even think what to do. She considered letting the thing pass by – maybe they really didn't need to confront it after all. It let out a hideous laugh, so low-pitched and slow that it seemed to rumble through the ground and shake the trees all around Mia. Then, it turned its head in its hand and stared straight at her.