The Apocalypse of the Damned

Chapter Eight: Scarecrows

They were staring at him. The angel didn't like it. He's never seen whatever they were, though he still hasn't seen a lot of things on Earth. The things were on a t-shaped post to hold their boneless bodies up. They were completely still like big rag dolls, except for their eyes which followed the trio. No one else seemed to notice though. So, maybe Malak was just seeing things. Maybe they weren't really staring. Maybe.

"Zye, what are those things?" Malak inquired.

The demon looked at what he was pointing at. "They're scarecrows. Farmers put them in their fields to scare birds away, so they don't eat their crops," Zion explained. Seeing the scarecrows just standing there in a field of dead crops was a bit creepy. Though the demon knew it was foolish to be creeped out by imamate objects. It wasn't like they were going to attack him.

The angel hummed, wearily looking at the scarecrows. He couldn't sense a life force from them; however, he didn't trust them. Something about them unsettled the angel. Ellette was even a bit unsettled by the scarecrows, though she was able to pay less attention to them.

Zion parked on the edge of the town by some dead fields. The town was small enough that they could walk everywhere which his angel would appreciate. As soon as the trio got out of the car, Malak noticed something move out of the corner of his eye. One of the scarecrows' heads moved towards the trio.

"Um, Zion?" He softly said while grabbing his hand.

"Yes, Angel?"

He squeezed his mate's hand and inquired, "Are the scarecrows supposed to move?"

The fae and demon both shared a strange look. "No, no they aren't," they said in unison.

The angel nervously bit his lip while looking around at all the scarecrows; every single one had moved their head to stare at them. He didn't feel safe. They were in danger. He knew it.

"Hey, it's okay, Malakai," his demon reassured him. "They can't hurt you. I promise."

His mate's words did calm him down a bit; nonetheless, he knew that it wasn't true. Though he's never seen a normal scarecrow, he knew these ones weren't normal. They could hurt them if they didn't care. Yet, he was the only one who noticed the strange things about them. He was the only one who saw their eyes and heads move to follow the group. He was the only one who thought they were dangerous. He was the only one. Did that make him crazy? Surely, it must. He had to be imagining things.

He wasn't sure if the thought of him imagining the scarecrows moving was more worrisome or not. The angel probably should've been a bit worried he was hallucinating; however, he enjoyed the fact that he was in no actual danger. Happily, he walked with the group towards the town, ignoring the creepy scarecrows around him. Zion also felt better knowing his angel wasn't so tense. He understood that the scarecrows were creepy, but there was no need to fear them. Was there?

Nobody had time to react as the angel was knocked down by a mystery force. It'd knocked him a few feet away from the group causing him to fall on his side, breaking his arm. The demon immediately got over his initial shock when he realized his angel was hurt. Both the fae and he ran towards the angel but were knocked down as well. Thankfully, they weren't hurt, just a bit shook up.

Everyone looked at who, or what attacked them. They were all shocked to see the scarecrows surrounding them. Though Malak wasn't as shocked. He predicted this would happen. The injured angel carefully stood up, watching all of them. He didn't feel like getting attacked again.

Malak knew their best chance of getting out of this is if he used his powers. He did manage to learn a thing or two from fighting his guardian, but he still hated using them. Having so much power frightened the angel. The young being took a deep breath to calm himself and focused on summoning his inner power. Suddenly, he felt it surge through him. Taking another deep breath, he released a huge blast of energy towards the half of the scarecrows that weren't by his mate and the fae. All the scarecrows that got hit blasted open causing all their hay to decorate the road. He was satisfied with his work until he noticed more scarecrows heading their way.

Zion got up immediately after he was knocked to the ground. He needed to help his mate, but when he looked over there, his mate had killed half the scarecrows already. This made the demon very proud. So instead of helping his mate, he pulled Ellette off the ground and got ready to fight the rest of the scarecrows.

"I can't fight," Ellette said worriedly. "It's not in my nature to hurt anything."

The demon rolled his eyes but kept his gaze on the scarecrows in front of him. "Are you serious? They aren't living things. It's not like you're going to hurt them," he replied bluntly.

"I can't do it. I'm sorry." Zion sighed in frustration and protectively moved in front of her. He wouldn't let her die- no matter how much she annoyed him. The scarecrows moved towards the two and Zion decided to get angry. After watching his mate use his power, he determined it was really effective. However, unlike his mate, he couldn't control his powers. The only way he knew how to use it was by getting really angry, which was actually quite easy for his mate. All he had to do was think about how they caused his mate to hurt his arm. After that, the power ignited in his body. He could feel it flow through him. Now for the easy part, annihilating all the scarecrows.

The angel found it easy to destroy all the scarecrows; however, they just kept coming. It seemed like never-ending waves of them and the angel wasn't sure if he could keep this up. There had to be some way to kill them all at once. Unfortunately, more waves came, and Malak couldn't keep up, though he did a pretty good job trying. One of them grabbed the angel's broken arm from behind, scaring him. He released his wings, knocking the scarecrow far away. He continued to send huge blasts of energy at the scarecrows, killing as many as he could, but the task seemed impossible. They just kept coming at him.

Somehow, another scarecrow managed to sneak behind the angel and grabbed his wing. The angel quickly turned around but due to the scarecrow's grip, his wing broke. Since he rarely showed his wings, he's never broken any bones there, so he wasn't used to how much pain it caused. The angel cried out and fell to his knees as tears stung his eyes. This needed to end soon. He needed to rest and heal.

The angel had an idea, though he wasn't sure it'd work.

Slowly, he made his way towards his mate, killing all the scarecrows that got in his way. The demon looked at the angel's wing, but Malak gently shook his head. They didn't have time to think about his injuries right now.

"We need to create a larger blast, together," the small angel said, grabbing his mate's hand. The demon nodded at him while he focused on creating the blast together. They both took a deep breath, listened to each other's heartbeats, and let all their power burst through them. The blast nearly knocked the fae off her feet but thankfully, Zion grabbed her, so she didn't fall. All the other scarecrows, however, weren't so lucky. The blast was so large that nothing was left of them except hay.

They all looked around just to be sure no more were coming. When they realized it was finally done, they all could relax. Though not for long. They were still one thing they needed to worry about.

Who sent the scarecrows to kill them?