Bedtime Horrors

Screams In the Fields

We all have been told stories, one way or another. That told us to never look under the bed at night, the boogieman kidnaps bad children, the Baba Yaga steals children from their beds, but today a new tale is written for those lovers of horror, who want to scare their children for some reason, from getting out of bed late at night to steal a cookie.

- Story -

It was a cold night, the fields of the Jefferson farm were a rainy, field of mud and creepy crawlies, the moon shimmered through the old, creaky, oak trees that surrounded the farmhouse and the adjacent buildings. The very earth was cold to the touch with the weather hitting below freezing, there was a small clearing next to a frozen pond where there was a scarecrow, dilapidated after many a year of service, its replacement had already been bought, and stored in the shed of the family.

The old scarecrow was riddled with bugs and patched clothing, which was over time eaten by moths and other flying critters, it was basically just down to a straw man strung up without eyes, a hat or even so much as a button, which had all fallen down as time went on. There was a group of teenagers at the edge of the family's land, they had snuck out of their homes with flashlights and their boots on, knowing they were going to trespass on the family's turf.

There were scary stories being told in their school, that the old forgotten farmhouse in the middle of the patches of wheat, was haunted by a creepy man, who would kill anyone foolish enough to enter the building. The teenagers used their jackets and winter gloves to get past the razor wire fence, being careful not to hurt themselves, but one of them did. Lisa Stumpton was a sixteen year old girl, who was here with her friends Derrick and Alissa Fowel, and Derrick his girlfriend Faye she was a nice and calm girl, but Derrick, Alissa and Lisa had been friends for many a year.

When they all had gotten through, Alissa helped Lisa by tying a bandana from her head around her cut, it was not big, but they were about to track through a muddy patch of land. "better safe than sorry." Said Alissa, and gave a soft smile with a wink to Lisa, who nodded and followed behind the others, she was normally not the type to do anything illegal, so why start now?

The four teens tracked through the swamp like terrain, Derrick leading the group and occasionally stepping in some really deep almost quicksand like terrain, he would try to use his flashlight to find the harder spots, but the hard thing about tracking through a field like this, it leaves your poor judgement to get even worse, entirely with the thought of knowing that you are trespassing.

The teens slowly made their way through these hard areas, they reached the small frozen lake, at which stood the rotten scarecrow, looking like nothing but a bale of hay strung to a crucifix shaped set of boards. Lisa looked at the scarecrow, and suddenly felt sick to her stomach, something was off about this thing and she knew it.

The other three talked her fears down, telling her how it is probably just the way the moonlight fell on it, or how the rustling of between the tillers of hay had gotten to her, she shook the feeling off, thinking her friends were right, and they moved on past the scarecrow, a few minutes later the group had reached their destination, and a sign hanging outside of the farmstead said 'Private Property - Of the Mason Family' the Mason's hadn't lived there for about two generations, after the Jefferson's won the land over a bet made while hunting.

The group looked upon the old facade of the house, the dark wood was all decayed and creaked eerily by the movement of the wind, it seemed sturdy enough, thought Derrick, and gave a kick against a wooden beam holding up the balcony above them, it creaked, and dust fell down, but it did not break as he predicted beforehand.

The four slowly made their way onto the wooden awning, and as Lisa looked back, she thought she saw the scarecrow from before, but denied herself the possibility of it being the case. Making their way inside the group all but scattered on each-other, they all found paintings, photos or even old furniture that seemed interesting to them, with Derrick calling them together to look at the family painting, which was made at the time with the family putting the scarecrow into the field, with the description label on the bottom stating the words 'Making Memories' the girls in the group felt bad for the family, but Derrick laughed it off saying it was a stupid mistake to bet the land on a hunting trip.

When there was a soft rustling beneath their feet, Fayebelle, Derrick and Lisa looked down to find that Alissa had disappeared from behind them, they started calling out her name, saying things like 'This isn't funny Al' or 'Al where are you?' Lisa felt like she missed something after looking around and looking down at the floorboards saw a piece of hay sticking out between them.

Kneeling down to look at and pick up the strangely placed tiller of weed, swirling it between her finger she felt the same feeling that she felt when looking upon the forgotten scarecrow, or neglected might be a better word in her mind, but can you really neglect something that was never alive? The questions poured into her head, and she could not let go the feeling that something was off here. "What in the hell?!"

Derrick his voice rang out upstairs, the two girls that were left from the group ran up the old stairs, breaking a few flights on the way up, when they too reached the second floor and up into the attic, they found Derrick shaking on his knees holding his sister, when the others came closer, and the flashlight fell off Derrick his lap, the flashlight illuminated the two better, and they saw Alissa laying in her brother' arms and the two screamed in fear and anguish as they noticed that her mouth, ears and eyes had been filled with hay, when Derrick turned around he yelled at them, thinking one of them must have done it.

Trying to explain to him that they were downstairs and could have never gone up the stairs before him, Lisa started to rant about the hay she found downstairs, Derrick was about to yell at her when creaking at the edge of the attic set their sights onto the scarecrow from before, donning clothing that resembled a farmer at this time, creakily like an old horror movie villain moving forward.

They all realized they had to get out of there, and quick. Carrying his sister Derrick ran down the stairs and into the fields outside, Lisa and Fayebelle following suit, running outside the girls pass Derrick, and when he gets touched by the scarecrow, he yells at the girls to carry his sister away, doing as he asked Fayebelle and Lisa ran to the edge of the fields with the body of their friend Alissa in their arms, throwing her over the fence, the two girls run and jump over the border themselves, the scarecrow stopping its movement when it seemingly met the end of the land.

Capitalising on this newfound strategy the two girls grabbed their dead friend, and later returned her to the police with their story. The brother Derrick was never found, and he was suspected to have been the murderer, the two girls, however, were declared insane and put into a mental hospital for further observation, this because they didn't want to believe that Derrick could have killed his own sister and had both stated their wants and need to burn down the field.

- Moral of the story -

Rather than test the old scary tales told around haunted houses, stick to telling the stories, you never know what you might get yourself or your friends into, and helping your friends stands at the forefront of this story, Fayebelle and Lisa could have left behind their friend her body, but it was to them the dying wish of their other friend.