Look Around

Regain The Pride

Wide eyed Billy said, "What!? How?! He should at least be in a coma!"

"Well he's not..." I said.

We just both looked at our dead best friend who we knew for years.

I said, "We allowed the death of him." in a voice which I didn't recognize.

Billy replied, "We need to get our parents and tell them what happen."

I nodded and we both headed to the door running. I thought to myself how unlucky we were that my parents picked tonight to go out, even if it did ruin our game. Just then as I was about to exit the gate to our farm, I heard a strange noise and as I turned back I realized the windows of my house were glowing purple, black, grey, and white.

"What in blazes is that light!?" I nearly screamed.

"We need to check what's happening!" Billy yelled back.

We both started running back to the house at top speed, at which the light was getting both brighter yet i had a cold feeling in me as if something that I had not felt since the first time I moved to this farm. Then all of a sudden, the lights stopped. We opened the door and looked around. The house seemed to be normal. The only thing missing was....

"Hey! Where is Chris!?" Billy said.

"Did his body just...Disappear?" I said in a really squeaky voice.

Sure enough, all we saw was the coffin and the furniture around the area, even the coffin looked the same, yet different somehow.

"Huh even the scarecrow and zombie masks disappeared...." Billy said in a curious voice

"Don't worry about that! We need to get out of here now!" I said.

In a lightning flash we both ran out of the house at lightning speed. We ran down the path until I pointed and gasped, "Over here! There's a shortcut! Remember!?"

Billy yells back, "Now I do!" We continue sprinting for a few more seconds when Billy starts to slow down for some reason.

"Dude, what are you doing? We need to move!" I yell. Billy ignores me and continues to stare east. I look at him until I notice what he is looking at. A scarecrow, on a pole about 30 yards away, yet clear in the luminescent moonlight.

Billy whispers, "Since when have you had a scarecrow on your farm?"

"Never." I whisper back. I squinted to see the scarecrow better. Then I thought noticed something peculiar about the scarecrow. I inched forward a few feet. Then I noticed, it wasn't a stuffed scarecrow, but a mask.

"Billy! I think it's a mask!" I whispered.

"A mask? Really? Billy whispers in a surprised voice.

"Yeah." We inch closer. I knew we should've just run back, but curiosity got the better part of us. As we inched closer I noticed the crops around us were getting smaller, then to no crops at all. Then suddenly they would be the tallest crops that my family would harvest.

I whispered "Psssst! Hey, Billy, did you notice-

"How the crops are changing size constantly? Yes." As we inched closer i noticed the crops changed, they started to become smaller, and less fertile. This confused me. From the look on Billy's face, this surprised him as well. The closer we got to the scarecrow the more nervous I got, nothing like this had ever happened to me, to anyone in fact.

Billy then muttered to himself, "What the-" I turned to see what he was looking at. Then I realized that the mask was the mask I used earlier on. That stopped us both.

Billy said, "Didn't you leave that by Chris?"

"Yeah." At this point I was ready to run back and get my parents, but then the scarecrow shifted. I nearly screamed, but I did not. Billy and I hit the dirt. The scarecrow flinched several times and twitched. It was freaky. Then it remained still. Then the scarecrow jumped off the pole. It had a black hat.

Then in an echoey voice it said softly, "I have returned to regain the lost pride." I said nothing, neither did Billy. We made no noise at all. Then the scarecrow turned around and looked around. As silently as possible I motioned for Billy to cover himself with some hay. We covered ourselves before it did a full revolution as it checked it's surroundings.

"Interesting." I heard it mutter. It started to walk towards us. As it walked I closed my eyes and prayed that it did not hear or see us. It came in between us. Stopped. Then continued quietly. I was so relieved it did not spot us that I almost breathed a sigh of relief. Almost. Then I felt something grab my shoulder and hoist me up. I still had my eyes closed ,but i could tell it was the scarecrow. I opened my eyes just in time to see it throw me and Billy down to the ground. That's when I got a good look at it. It was a little less than 6 feet tall with the hat and mask, along with glowing white eyes. It wore overalls and had the sense of absolute hate. A pitchfork appeared in its hand. For a long time nothing happened. Just me staring and having the worst fear in my life.

Then it spoke in its echoey voice, "I have returned." I didn't know what he meant by that. Returned? How? Was he a old farmer? And why a scarecrow?

It spoke again, "You have awakened me from my sleep." How? I thought to myself. How did 3 teenagers awake this...this...this scarecrow!? Then I remembered the poem.

Dishonored the roots of this tree are

Regain thee lost pride shall be redeemed

If the protector of death shall come up away

Past shall come and regain once more

I then thought about it. The scarecrow said something about "awakened from my sleep" In the poem it says "Death shall come up" The poem was on a coffin, were those related?

"You." He pointed at Billy, who at the moment was shaking a lot. "You are a descendant of the Pykes." That was Billy's last name, it was an interesting name. Billy P, Pykes.

Then the scarecrow turned toward me and said, "You, you are the enemy of the Pykes!" How was I an enemy? I knew the Pykes had been a famous family back when plantations were in abundance. Then I remembered my family history. My grandad told me a story saying that my ancestors had dishonored a family by taking their pride. Was that the pykes?

Then it said, "One enemy shall die tonight."

I stuttered, "W-w-who a-are you t-talking about?"

It looked at me, "One enemy shall die tonight, an enemy of the pykes."

It looked at Billy of us, then said, "No one shall leave until a descendant of our enemy is dead."

To prove this, the scarecrow floated into the air, waved his arms, and I could sort of make out a green sort of...force field? Covering the farm. This has to be an illusion, I thought. This has to be some sort of prank by the little kids, who had help from their older brothers, it has to be. Then smoke came from nowhere and the scarecrow, disappeared.