Frights (Scary Stories)

1. The Scarecrow

She begged her parents not to go, Emily begged and begged not to go. "You're going and that's final," her parents said, "No back talk. Pack your bags." Emily, "Em" for short, stormed off to her room and started packing her bags. She hated going to her grandparents, more specifically, she hated seeing her grandmother. The old bat always made her work in the field, and wasn't nice about it. "You're always on that damned phone." She would say. If it was just her grandpa she was visiting she would be fine, he was cool. Em's parents rushed her about packing her bags, she threw some old clothes she didn't mind getting dirty in her suitcase and stormed out to her parents car.

It was about a two hour drive from her house to her grandparents. Their driveway was long and they lived in the middle of nowhere. Fields of corn surrounded all the sides of their house, the only neighbor they had was a very old woman who lived down the road. Em spent the whole ride there texting her friends, complaining about the whole thing. The two hours seemed to go by in a flash, because they had already arrived. Emily rolled her eyes. "It's just one weekend," she had to tell herself. She said goodbye to her parents angrily, then headed to the front door of the two story, white, farm house. Even though it was two story, there was only one bedroom upstairs, the guest bedroom. She knocked on the door twice after climbing the gigantic porch steps. Not 10 seconds after knocking, her grandmother answered. She welcomed her and brought her inside. Everything was going fine so far, they talked and watched some television together. Her grandpa cracked a joke every now and then, making the house roar with laughter. Em was actually enjoying her time there, until dinner that night. The three of them sat at the table and started to eat, when Em's grandmother said, "I hope you're ready to get to work tomorrow. Your grandpa and I are gonna need a lot of work," and chuckled. Emily stopped eating and looked up, she did a fake grin and nodded. In her mind she was thinking, "Yeah right, the only thing you need help with is dental care." After dinner, Emily went up to her room and started to comb her hair in the mirror by a window. She looked out the window and saw something tall standing above all of the corn in the field, it was a scarecrow. It has never been there before, and by what she could see, it was creepy as hell.

The next morning the three sat at the table eating breakfast, Emily mentioned the scarecrow. "Oh yea, we just had to get one! Those stupid crows were eating all of the corn!" Em's grandpa said. After changing clothes, Emily's grandma led her into the field and told her to start picking the corn. They had machines for picking corn, this is one of the reasons she hated her grandmother. All the machines in the world to pick corn but grandma just had to do it by hand. She handed Em a old rusty bucket, then walked off. 30 minutes went by and the bucket was only half full, then suddenly, Emily walked into a empty circle of field in the corn. She looked up, and there 15 feet in the air sat that creepy scarecrow. It was wearing a straw hat, overalls, and a plaid button up shirt under that. It looked so real, too real. It was stressing Em out, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her secret pack of cigarettes. She lit one up, and was smoking when she heard her grandmas voice closing in behind her. She threw it to the ground, and spit trying to get the smell of it from her mouth. "Hey darling," she said, "Just checking to see how you were doing." She peeked over into the bucket, Emily felt anxious waiting for a response. Her grandma bit what teeth she had and her face turned red. "That's all you have done this whole time, child! You better get to work now! I want that bucket full when you get back to the house!" Her grandma turned to walk away then turned back and said, "Maybe smoking in a field this dry isn't the best idea," then nodded towards the cigarette lying on the ground. After she walked away Emily said to herself, "That bitch is mental or something." She then looked back to the scarecrow, and could have sworn its head wasn't looking down at her beforehand. Confused, and a bit scared, she went back into the corn and started plucking it again.

After taking a 5 minute hot shower because the water went cold, Emily sat in her room on her phone. The time was 10:00 p.m. There was a knock at the door. "Come in." Em said. Her grandpa walked in, "Patsy fell, the old thing I don't know how she's still living. Anyway she fell and somehow managed to call us for help. So me and grandma are going to go help her out. You fine here a couple minutes by yourself?" Emily nodded, her grandpa left and shut the door behind him. She watched as their car drove down the driveway, then started brushing her hair in the mirror. Then, something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She looked into the field and saw a trail of gray smoke filling the sky. "Oh shit," she said to herself, "that damned cigarette!" She quickly put on slippers, and ran out into the field with a pale of water. She followed the smoke in the sky until she returned to the empty circle of land in the field. There was no flames. She looked around from where the smoke was coming from, but found nothing. Then, she looked at the scarecrow post, and followed it up to where the scarecrow was supposed to be. There was nothing. Her heart started to skip beats, "Did it burn?" she thought to herself. The top of the post was burnt black. She was still looking at the post, when a sound from the corn behind the post made her look that direction. Behind the corn, she could make out a tall black figure standing in the corn. She looked closely trying to make out what it was. The scarecrow. What could been seen of it was crisp black. All at once it leaked out from the corn, running towards her. Emily dropped the pail of water and ran through the corn, the leaves on it scratching her arm as she went. She ran out of the field and for the back door of the house. The sound of her slamming the door echoed. She quickly locked the door, then ran for the shotgun they had hid in the kitchen. She didn't even know how to use it, but she was desperate. Emily cowarded into a corner of the kitchen that was facing the back door and sat there, with the gun pointing at it. knock...knock... knock... Emily was panting as she pointed the gun.

The door knob began to twist. The lock on the door stopped it from turning all the way. Emily's breathes became harder and harder to get out. knock..knock..knock. The doors handle began to turn again, but this time it didn't stop. The door slowly opened, and in came the figure that was the scarecrow. It's hat was singed, and where the eyes were supposed to be appeared to be little flames dancing around in its head. Then, slowly, it turned it towards her. All at once, Emily screamed and pulled the trigger. The kickback made her hit her head on the wall. Everything was black for a moment. Then she heard crying and screaming. Emily began to get back in touch with reality. She stood and looked to where she had shot the scarecrow. Instead of seeing the scarecrow lying on the floor, she saw her grandmother in a puddle of blood. Emily's grandpa was holding her. He screamed, "Why did you do it? Why!" Emily's world began to spin, "No I- I didn't. It was the scarecrow." Trembling with a tsunami or terror she ran out of the house, and back into the empty circle of land in the field. There sat the scarecrow untouched, nothing there but a empty pail of water. Emily dropped to her knees and cried. Moments later the sound of multiple sirens echoed through the night sky.

Everyone always knew Emily had it out for her own grandmother. No one was surprised when she was found guilty on all accounts of first degree murder, not even her parents. She tried to tell them that, "It was the scarecrow I shot! It was after me!" But no one listened. So there she sits till this day in a mental facility, where she'll live for the rest of her days.