Scarecrow

One faithful afternoon halfway through September, the transfer student Theo stumbled upon the prettiest girl in the school Audrey and their English teacher making out. Theo apologized embarrassed and ran. The next day he was greeted at school with angry remarks and random fits of violence.

The school administrators interrogated him stating that they had received a report that he had sexually assaulted Audrey. He quickly denied the allegations, however, they just coldly glared at him. They had discovered bite marks and red marks covering her body. He refuted their claims.

He had only dug his grave deeper, they beseeched him for attempting to torment her more, everyone turned their backs on him. The only one who stood by him was his father, his mother had died early and he was the only son, so they only had each other.

Mr. Sticks fought for his son’s innocence and firmly stood resilient against negative remarks, arguing that to be making such allegations and accusing his son of such a heinous crime there needed to be evidence of his involvement. Mr. Sticks got his lawyers involved. They were able to prove his innocence in less than a day and had the school apologize and drop the case.

At the news, his father ruffled his hair and smiled warmly upon his son stating, “See, I knew my Theo wouldn’t do such a thing. He’s our son after all.”

Theo’s innocence was found to be the truth and he attended school relieved. Nevertheless, the students sided with Audrey and ostracized him. They accused him of having falsified the evidence and paying the school off to drop the case. They harassed him verbally and physically, making sure to never giving him time to relax.

He could only sit at home and write poems of how he was feeling. His notebook had started almost empty and optimistic at the beginning of the school year, but now had turned dark and was filled with poems of sadness.

It had been roughly three and a half weeks since the incident and on a chilly October afternoon, Mr. Sticks appeared before his son and placed what looked to be a straw sack cut in the shape of a person.

“I brought ya a friend for Halloween. I got him at a farmers market. Your mom and I loved spooky stuff like this so I thought you might too. What do you think?” Mr. Sticks questioned gently as he gazed at his son with slight worry.

“Mmm… it looks neat to me. The only thing he needs is a face, some clothes, and then a place to show himself off.” Theo listed as he headed towards his room for some spare clothes and a marker.

“How do you know it’s a boy? For all, you know it could be a girl. Or it could be neither” His father teased as he set the scarecrow down on a chair and watched his son dress and color it.

“Haha. Very funny,” Theo mocked as he colored in the scarecrows face with a black marker. “But I just have a feeling it’s a he.”

“Okay, whatever you say, boss. But, are you sure about that look isn’t it a little too ghastly looking” Mr. Sticks inquired as he pointed his finger towards the scarecrows face, whose face had 2 small dark circles for eyes and one large dark oval for a mouth.

“Yea, it’s fine. It’s Halloween after all. He’s gotta be spooky looking or else it’ll be no fun.” Theo chuckled as he moved outside to the porch, placing the scarecrow on a rocking chair.

“Well, if you say so. But if I find him staring at me funny I’m gonna have to ask for a makeover. Now let’s go have dinner, I’m starved.” Mr. Sticks chuckled as he went into the house, his stomach growling in agreement.

“Mmk. Well, I’m gonna go eat but I’ll be right back I swear.” Theo started to turn away but was pulled back. He looked and saw that his shirt had gotten caught by some straw that had been sticking out. He shook it off and went inside, leaving the scarecrow standing guard on the porch with what looked like a thin upwards crescent smile.

From then on, Theo spent a lot of his time at home on the porch. He would sit and write poems in his trusty notebook with his scarecrow in the accompanying rocking chair. He would monologue to him about his frustrations and about how school was when his father wasn’t home. He talked with him about he felt that it was unfair that they didn’t believe him and how it wasn’t like he had walked in on Audrey and his English teacher on purpose. He also even complained about how he hadn’t even told anyone of what he had seen between them and that he should just tell everyone to get even with her. But he never did he would just talk and talk to his scarecrow friend, even giving him a name, Scare, and voicing him when he talked with him.

His newfound optimism and cheerfulness brought joy and relief to his father as he watched his son reverting to his old self. Consequently, this didn’t bring happiness to Audrey, if anything it brought the opposite.

He hadn’t told anyone what he had seen. She could only worry if he would tell anyone. It was just a matter of time.

She decided that before that happened she’d take matters into her own hands. She told the English teacher to call Theo in and ask him to prepare his notebook for a poetry competition. He readily agreed and the moment he walked in with notebook in hand, it was yanked from his grasp and he was picked up. He flailed and screamed as he tried to free himself.

Audrey took the notebook and started reading his poems while ripping the pages one after another. Theo turned rose-red as his secret feelings were exposed.

“Wow, you are a softie aren’t you. What’s this, ‘solace solitude, wrapped in burlap and spiky straw, my one companion’ wow. That’s gross are you talking about that stupid little scarecrow of yours. Gross, it’s a love poem about your little toy.” Audrey cackled as she and the group of students brought Theo to a railing.

“Wait! What are you doing?! Stop! I’ll die!” Theo screamed as the turned him upside down and hung him by the railing of the staircase.

“Oh, shut up!” Audrey screeched as she turned to throw the notebook in the trash. But before she could reach it, she stopped in her tracks to make out a dark figure that was at the end of the hallway. She squinted at the figure and made out a human silhouette. Panic welled up inside her as she looked back at her companions hanging Theo from the railing.

However, the moment she looked back at where the shadow had been there was nothing there. She let out a breath of relief and went back to find her friends yelling.

“What’s wrong?” She worriedly asked as she saw them looking down at the staircase. Suddenly, it hit her that they were no longer holding Theo in their hands, she rushed to the railing and looked down to find him face-up in a pool of blood, unmoving. Her eyes froze in fear.

“What happened?!” She yelled.

“I-I-I d-don’t k-know?! W-we were holding him… and then w-we looked at the window to the t-the p-parking lot and saw someone with a-a h-hood on s-staring at us!” One of them fumbled.

What? She thought to herself. I thought that it was just my eyes. Panic welled up inside her as her eyes began to dilate and anxiety inflated her chest.

“I’m getting out of here!” One of them left and another followed after them.

“Wait! You can’t just leave?! What about him?” Audrey pointed at Theo as tears welled up in her eyes.

“Who cares about him right now?! Someone saw us.” One of her friends scooped her hand into their’s and tugged her along as they ran towards the front of their cars in the opposite direction.

Audrey took one final glance at the school as they drove away. Sitting on a bench at the front door was a scarecrow with three black stains on its face. It looked like a scarecrow with a crying face.

Theodore was brought to a hospital thanks to an anonymous call. Although, he was currently in a coma. Mr. Sticks cried for his son and demanded an explanation from the school, who only questioned whether Theo had ever been suicidal before. Mr. Sticks infuriated, called an investigation team.

All the meanwhile, Audrey and co. had been freaking out over the news of Theo’s safety. They could only panic as they felt the guilt weighing down on them.

Strangely, after the incident, several incidents started happening. First, they all began to experience nightmares of pure terror, dreams where a howling figure chased them through cornfields scythe in hand. Then, Audrey had found small traces of hay in her locker and her car. Next, her friends had started to find sad faces drawn on their desks. Soon after sad faces would appear on the blackboard in the school every morning.

It got worse as the days dragged on, suddenly their English teacher had gone missing. They later found him dead in the middle of a cornfield 30 miles south tied to an upwards plank like a scarecrow. He was painted in black smudged ink with a sad face and tears. Thereafter, more and more administrators and teachers began either disappearing or leaving town, none of them ever made it past the town limit. They were found hanging from trees in burlap sacks filled with straw and decorated with sad faces.

Soon after, Theo’s notebook was found tattered and in pieces on an empty rocking chair next to a scarecrow of the Sticks family home, with the two words “Don’t worry” choppily written in large black marker ink inside. Mr. Sticks then learned of what Theo had been going through and sue the school for its lack of intervention and publicized the situation and Theo’s poems. Theo’s work was well-received and words of encouragement were sent his way. Mr. Sticks eventually moved away but never dropped his case or investigation for his son.

The town learned of what Audrey and her friends had been doing and eventually the investigation team was able to piece things together when an anonymous recording was played on the school intercom. It was the desperate cries of help from Theo as he dangled from the railing and Audrey mocking his cries. Audrey and her friends could only internally panic and scream as the event started to replay in their heads and the stares of their classmates penetrated them.

They made a break for it. They pushed past security and teacher’s trying to escape. They ran towards their cars only to find their cars scratched with the words, “I saw you”. Their tires had farming sickles sticking of them and a single scarecrow stared back at them with a smirk colored in with smudged black marker.

Audrey and her friends screamed in defiance and cried, “Leave us alone. We’re sorry! We didn’t do anything to you!” They panted as they kept screaming at the scarecrow.

Suddenly it a banshee-like screech escaped from it, “YOU MADE SCARE SAD. SO SCARE MAKE YOU SAD!” And ran at them scythe in hand.

Their screams were drowned out by burlap and straw. By the time the authorities had arrived their bodies were found in the car with burlap sacks filled with straw over their heads. Painted where their faces would be was a happy face drawn in smudged black marker.

The only thing they could find nearby was a lifeless scarecrow with a smiley face drawn in blood on its face.