Scarecrow Jack- The Awakening

1

It was two hours before midnight, three men walked into the bar, they were big men, they were Benny's men. John the bartender looked and recognized them, they asked John "Where's Damon?". He pointed upwards toward the rooms; the men started walking upstairs towards the room. Damon was lying in bed with Marie the bargirl. He was just telling Marie how he hated this town and wanted to leave it, suddenly there was a thud on the door. Someone was trying to break the door down. One of Benny's men said "We know you're in there Damon, you are late on your debt, you know what will happen if you don't pay back Benny!". Damon jumped up from the bed in fear, Marie pointed towards the window and told him to get out from there. Damon in a hurry opened the window and jumped out of there, he even forgot to take his cloths with him. As he jumped the thug bashed opened the door and saw him jumping out of the window. "He is running through the back, Get Him!!" He shouted to his men. They started chasing Damon who was running away. Damon not realizing he was naked ran through the market naked, some people were laughing, others were angry on him, but his priority was saving his life. He looked here and there and saw a cornfield in the distance. Damon ran towards the cornfield in hope to lose his pursuers. The tall cornfields in the night were prefect for someone to hide, but the sight of them in the night would scare anyone, however at this point Damon's life was much important to him so he entered the cornfields and ran straight and right and left, no idea where he would end up. After running for a while, he stopped due to exhaustion, he sat down to catch his breath, he looked back and could hear the men looking for him, just as he stood up, he saw a figure in front of him. It was still, its arms were stretched out and it wore a hat. At first Damon was scared and almost shouted in fear, but then he calmed himself down, it was a Scarecrow in the fields. The scarecrow was put up there to scare the crows away. Damon now realized he was naked and forgot his wares at Marie's. He wondered how can he ran away naked through the whole town market, but he had no choice. He thought for a moment about what should he do, he couldn't go back as he was naked and didn't wanted to walk the town naked again, and the men were almost upon him. He came up with an idea. He took down the scarecrow and wore his clothes. The scarecrow had a worn-out hat, an old, torn, worn-out shirt and trousers and a scary and disfigured leather mask. At first Damon resisted wearing the cloths but given the circumstances he had no choice but to disguise himself as the scarecrow. So, he took out all the hay from the cloths and the mask and wore it, then he stood still as the scarecrow was standing before. Soon the men caught up to the scarecrow, not knowing it was Damon the men first got frightened of it but then realized it was just a scarecrow. One of the men said" We better find that bastard or Benny will kill us." The other men looked at the scarecrow and noticed the mask. He said to his boss "Hey boss, look what a scary looking scarecrow it is, he is not here we should look for him elsewhere." His boss nodded in agreement as he also noticed the disfigured mask and they walked away. Damon breathed a sigh of relief and as soon as he stopped hearing the footsteps of the thug's he eased himself, took off the mask and started walking to his home. When he came home, he knocked on the door of his house, his older brother Sebastian opened the door, Sebastian had a bruise on his face, like someone had punched him in the face. It was clear to Damon that Benny's men were here looking for him and had beaten Sebastian. Sebastian was angry and he grabbed Damon by the collar and pulled him towards him. Sebastian said in an angry tone "When are you going to leave your betting habit?" "one day I won't be here to protect you or to take a beating on your behalf!" he shouted. Damon grabbed his hands and shrugged them off, "I didn't ask you to do anything for me, I don't need your or anyone's protection, I can take care of myself" he said. Sebastian calmed himself down and said "Brother please, don't do this to yourself, don't be a part of this bad debt business, you are a good person and I love you. I don't want anything bad befalling on you." Damon who was in no mood for listening to his brother's advice said "I hate this town and everything in it, it never did anything good for us ever, I want to leave this place and never look back". Sebastian put his hand on Damon's shoulder and in a consoling manner said "Brother do something good with your life, underneath all this hatred, and rejection there is a good and pure hearted person, that is the real you brother, find a purpose in your life, I don't want to lose you too like we lost our parents, as you are the only family I have left".Damon and Sebastian's parents died when they were just children, they had an accident while crossing the river and their boat drowned. Sebastian being the elder one worked in the coal mine from a young age to look after his brother and him. The coal mine was located on the outskirts of the town. It was a large mine and many workers worked there. The mine was very dangerous and had claimed the lives of many who worked there, but despite the dangers Sebastian still worked there to provide themselves with food and resources. Damon on the other hand grew up on the streets as no one was around to look after him in the house, he would get into fights everyday and got beaten up. He stole from bakeries and general stores and was hated by most of the town. But the town-folks knew their parents which were respectable people and Sebastian who was always good to them and respected them, and if got any chance, helped them, they would let those things go. Damon was a nuisance to all but still some of the town-folks cared for him. "I don't care what you think brother, don't worry for me, we are not kids anymore and besides I am going to leave this town and you very soon, so that you won't have to look after me anymore." He said while standing up and going towards his room, and then he slammed shut his door with Sebastian watching him.