The Scarecrow Girl

Horror Stories - The Scarecrow Girl

He had lived on his family's farm in Iowa his whole life, so morning chores were not uncommon to him. Lifting his basket over his head, he made his way to the large corn fields far behind the barn closest to his house. The harvest season was upon him and his family so they had been very busy the past few weeks. As he walked out to the field he couldn't help but notice the scarecrow that was perched high above the swaying cornstalks.

That old thing had been in the same spot for as long as he could remember, the years of wear obviously taking a toll on the old scarecrow. Her long, coarse black hair was a mess, her dress tattered and torn and her pale body stained. He thought to himself about fixing her up some day.

He stood silently staring at his old friend, remembering how he had shared so much with the inanimate object when he was younger and felt alone. Her eternal smile and blank eyes were comforting to him, a silent promise to never tell another soul all he had told her. It had been a couple years since he had talked to the scarecrow, he had figured an 18 year old boy would be better off not seen talking to a lifeless object. Though to him, the scarecrow wasn't lifeless. She was his first and best friend. The lived together, played together, aged together...come to think of it, he had never noticed before that it seemed like the older he got, the older the scarecrow appeared. He smiled and sat down beside the scarecrow's pole.

"Sorry it's been so long" he whispered up to his friend. "I've been real busy I suppose..."

The wind blew threw the scarecrow's hair and rustled the hay protruding from her body.

"Yeah, I guess that's no excuse. Sorry...but...I met this girl," he said, half smiling. "She's amazing. I think, ya know, she might be 'the one'."

Sudden silence filled his ears as the wind blowing through the cornfield abruptly stopped. The scarecrow stood perched, completely still.

"Would you like to meet her? She'd love you! I'm havin' her over for supper tonight, I'll bring her out afterwards and introduce you two," he told the scarecrow as he stood up. He glanced up at his dear old friend once more before heading off to finish his daily chores.

"Come on Lilly!" He called to the girl, laughing as he ran with her towards the darkened cornfield. He was excited that his girlfriend had agreed to come to dinner and meet his parents, but was a bit nervous to show her his friend. What would she think?

He was almost an adult and he was still talking to an inanimate object? He smiled to himself, what was he talking about? Lilly was so kind and sweet understanding, of course she would love to meet her. He turned back to see if his girlfriend was still following but couldn't see her.

"Lilliy!" He called as he looked around for her. He smiled. "Don't think you can hide from me in my own field!" He called as he crept around silently looking for her. Pushing through the cornstalks he came upon the scarecrow's perch, seeing the back of her friend first.

"Hey there," he whispered. "I brought her to see yo-." He broke off suddenly when he walked to the front of the scarecrow and found that it his wasn't his friend who occupied the perch at all, but Lilly. Her arms and legs were bound coarsely with dirty ropes to the old wooden post and her stomach was cut open with her internal fluids and intestines dripping from the wound.1 His face paled and he dropped to his knees in shock. As his hands touched the ground, he felt a piece of paper right beside the wooden post. Hands shaking, he picked it up and read the poorly written messege:

"Now you don't have to be so busy."

He'd read it aloud, his voice shaking and eyes filling with tears. He tore up the paper and stood once more to look at the corpse hanging on the perch in front of him before turning around to meet the ever-smiling face of his dear old friend.