Valley of the Scarecrow (14 page)

Back at the fire the gang partied on, everyone’s excitement getting the better of their judgment. They drank all of the peach schnapps and over half of the whiskey, but it was the marijuana that really did them in. A few more joints passed around and all bets were off. Inhibitions were cast aside and a few of them started to lose control, especially Kim, who wasn’t able to keep her feelings about Dan hidden any longer and kept trying to rub up against him and get him to dance with her. When she eventually put her arms around his neck and tried to kiss him, Kelly finally stepped in.

“Hey, what the fuck you think you’re doing?” she screamed, pushing Kim away from Dan, who was so drunk he nearly stumbled into the fire trying to get out of the way.

“Settle down,” Kim said, slurring her words. “I don’t want him forever. I just wanna borrow him for a while, okay?”

Kim made a move to reach for Dan again but Kelly wasn’t having any of it. She stepped in between them and slapped Kim as hard as she could across the face. “You’ve got your own man, bitch. Get lost.”

“Come on, Kim,” Pat said, trying to intervene. “Back off, okay?”

“Fuck you,” Kim spat at Pat, pushing him aside. “And fuck you too, you little slut. Dan and I go way back…don’t we, baby? Tell ’er she ain’t the only one who likes the dark meat, sugar.”

“What?” Kelly said, fists clenched, ready to explode. She turned to Dan. “Is that true? You’ve been fooling around with her too?”

Dan was sitting on the ground by this point, not wanting any part of this argument but forced to say something. “No way. I mean…I knew her but I swear I’ve never—”

“Son of a bitch! I trusted you, Dan, and here you are lying to me again.” The anger started to drain out of Kelly, a deep ache filling her heart instead. “How many other whores don’t I know about?”

“None, honey. You got this all wrong.”

“Who you calling a whore, bitch?” Kim said, not helping things any.

“Fuck you, slut. I ought to rip your fake tits off. Who invited you anyway?”

“Oh they’re real, sweetie. Just ask your man…he’ll tell you!”

That did it. Kelly charged at Kim, ready to claw her eyes out, but Rich grabbed her from behind and pulled her to the far side of the fire. “Settle down and shut the fuck up! Both of you! This isn’t happening. You hear me? We’re all just too damn drunk to think straight.”

“He’s right, Kel,” Lizzy said, coming over to try calm down her best friend. “Come on, let’s call it a night. You can come sleep with me, and Rich can sleep with Dan. We’ll talk about all this in the morning when we’re thinking straight.”

“I don’t wanna sleep,” Kelly said, still furious but on the brink of tears. “I want her out of here. Don’t want her anywhere near me…or Dan.”

“We can’t do anything tonight,” Rich said. “No one’s going anywhere in the middle of the night. I agree with Lizzy. Let’s get some sleep and worry about all this shit in the morning.”

“Kelly, please…” Dan said, too drunk to even get to his feet.

“Fine,” Kelly said, ignoring her boyfriend and letting
Liz lead her off toward her tent. She was bawling on her friend’s shoulder within two steps.

They disappeared into the tent and everything was quiet out by the fire. Kim was slumped to the ground rubbing her chin where she’d been slapped, Dan was on the ground looking ill, like he might throw up or pass out at any minute, and Pat and Rich were just standing still looking at each other, neither of them having a clue how things had spiraled out of control so quickly.

“I’ll take Dan and get him into bed,” Rich said to Pat. “You okay with Kim?”

“Guess I’ll have to be. Quite the load she just dropped on us all, huh? About her and Dan, I mean?”

“Yeah. Wonderful.”

“Think it’s true? If it is, I doubt she ever liked me. Probably only hooked up with me to get near him.”

“I don’t know, man. I didn’t know about it if it is. Regardless, there’s nothing we can do about it tonight. Get her into the tent. We can worry about everyone being pissed off tomorrow. Maybe we’ll all be so hungover none of us will remember.”

“Yeah, right? We’re not that lucky. What about the fire?”

“Fuck it. It’ll burn itself out. I’m going to bed. See ya in the morning.”

Rich grabbed Dan and half pushed him, half carried him to Dan’s tent, unceremoniously shoving him inside and disappearing himself, leaving only Pat and Kim outside by the fire. Looking less and less like the sexy woman Pat had thought she was, Kim was bent over vomiting into the grass.

“Lovely!” Pat said. “Why does this bullshit always happen to me?”

From high atop the church steeple, the crows huddled together to ward off the chill in the air, their obsidian eyes watching the fire on the ground below as it slowly died. Some of the bigger crows were asleep already, the older leaders of the murder, but the younger, more skittish birds stood watch, their finely tuned instincts telling them something had changed in the field tonight. A disturbance in the natural order of things. There was an electric hum in the air, some powerful force awakening and sending a ripple of dark energy throughout the woods. The birds could understand none of these things, but they could feel the hatred, feel the insane hunger building inside the church below their clawed feet, and none of them knew what they should do about it so they remained alert and on guard, ready to bolt at a moment’s notice if the danger they sensed came any closer.

Within the sanctuary, Joshua Miller groaned and opened his eyes. His sandpaper-dry tongue dabbed at the sweet coppery liquid inside his mouth again and felt another surge of adrenaline and energy travel down his throat and warm his cold, unmoving heart. After seventy-four long years, his heart began to beat within his withered chest, sending wave after wave of blood coursing through his collapsed veins. It was excruciatingly painful, his
tightly bound limbs thrashing against their ropes as every muscle in his body cramped and spasmed back to life. Along with the blood, images of his life and death flooded into his consciousness again, filling in the gaps that time had eaten into his memories. It took every ounce of control Joshua had learned over the decades not to scream out in agony, but he stifled his cries, relishing the pain after so many years of not feeling anything. He rejoiced feeling the great weight of Angus Tucker’s amulet finally gone from his chest, the removal of which had as much to do with his resurrection as the life-giving blood trickling down his face into his thirsty gaping mouth.

It’s gone! The talisman is gone!

The blood from the young man who’d cut himself had also dripped and fallen onto the cornstalks below, causing them to lap up the red liquid as greedily as he had done. Below him, the corn magically began to move, a soft green glow illuminating the basement and lighting the sanctuary around him. He watched the cornstalks grow even thicker and stronger, snaking up out of the floor and piercing into the paper-thin skin of his ankles, knees, thighs, arms, and belly. The strong fibers of the plant bore tunnels within his parched inner meat, wrapping itself around his bones and entwining within his atrophied muscles. He would have screamed at the inhuman invasion but before he could one thick shaft entered his mouth, gagging him into silence as the corn grew down his throat and spread its fibrous tendrils throughout the core of his convulsing body. Moments later, his old, desiccated body began to rebuild itself, his muscles feeding on the dark power flooding into his system through the cornstalks, growing larger and far more powerful than he’d ever been in real life. Joshua was becoming
part of the field and the field becoming part of him, a union formed in hell and consummated on the dark altar of a desecrated church.

Their job done, the cornstalks snapped off near where they’d entered his flesh, retracting back into the basement, the wounds healing almost instantly but leaving several inches of plant sticking out of his skin. The unnatural green glow died away, leaving Joshua in darkness again, but he was used to that by now. By the light of the moon filtering in the few windows the intruders had managed to pry open and by the slight green glow of his enhanced eyes, he clenched and unclenched his massive fists, amused at seeing the way the cornstalks protruded from his shoulders and wrists, and relishing the incredible strength he felt raging through him. With one quick flex of his forearm, the thick ropes binding his left hand snapped, and one more pull freed his arm completely. The ropes holding his right arm held a little longer, but he was still able to rip his arm free without much difficulty. Holding on to the crossbeam with his left arm, he examined the way his fingernails had grown long and pointy during his long sleep. He used the overgrown nails on his right hand to slice apart the ropes wound around his midsection and legs, pleased they were sharp enough to sever the bindings easily, like a new scythe blade cutting through fresh summer grass.

Free of his bindings at last he dropped heavily to the floor, not at all used to supporting his massive weight on his own two feet but he got the hang of things quickly, testing his powerful legs by walking around on the altar. When he was sure of himself, he leaped off the raised platform and moved down the center aisle, headed for the front of the church and the freedom of the fields beyond. At the front doors, he paused to look over at the dying
fire and the trio of colorful plastic tents grouped near it. Inside, he knew the group of young intruders must be sleeping.

Heathens and whores. How dare they defile my land!

The more Joshua thought about them, the angrier he became. Rage had been his only companion for so long he knew no other friend. Payback and stone-cold retribution were the only things that mattered to him now, the only thoughts on his seething mind. He let out a low, rumbling growl as he descended the stairs, free of his prison for the first time since before he’d been betrayed. Many of the crows watching from above took flight, feeling the madness coming off him like pulsating waves of icy rain. Joshua watched them fly away, just small, dark shadows against the even darker night sky but he knew what they were. Ignoring the smaller birds, he looked up toward the church roof and spotted the big leaders of the murder. He couldn’t see their eyes from on the ground but instinctively he knew they were awake and watching his every move. This pleased him immensely.

Our time has finally come, my friends,
the creature that used to be Reverend Miller thought, a smile playing across his cruel visage.
Vengeance will be mine…but the glory will all be yours!

The scarecrow walked off into the corn, disappearing into the night.

“Come on, Kim,” Pat said for the third time now. “Don’t worry about it. For Christ’s sake, just lie down and go to sleep. We’ll deal with it in the morning. You’re still too damn drunk right now.”

“I am not too drunk,” Kim said. “And fuck you anyway. This has nothing to do with you so get out of my face.”

Several hours had passed since the big blowup between her and Kelly out by the fire, and once Kim had stopped puking her guts out, Pat had managed to get her into their tent and wrapped up in a warm blanket. Unfortunately, she’d only slept for a few hours and she’d woken Pat up trying to crawl over him to get outside again. A few questions was all it had taken to understand that her master plan was to apologize to Kelly and try to get Dan to go for a walk with her so they could work things out. Obviously that was a terrible plan and Pat was getting frustrated trying to talk her out of it.

“What do you mean this has nothing to do with me? ’Course it does. You’re supposed to be here with me, remember?”

“Ahh…poor baby. Feeling left out, little boy? Well, get over it!”

“So you never liked me? That what you’re saying? It was all just a bullshit way for you to get closer to Dan?”

“What’s the difference, Pat? But no, for what it’s worth, at the start I liked you quite a bit. To be honest though, you’re too much of a whiny little boy for my tastes. And that shitty hobby of yours is driving me nuts. I’m used to guys who want to put their hands on me…not a bloody camera. Screw that. I’m out of here.”

“Wait,” Pat said, her words stinging but knowing he shouldn’t let her out of the tent. “You can’t go over to see Dan and you definitely can’t go see Kelly.”

“Why not?”

“Christ, Kim, think about it for a second. Don’t you think you’ve caused enough trouble around here for one night? You might have feelings for Dan but wake up for God’s sake…Dan and Kelly are in love. You don’t have the right to get in the middle of that. Just lie down and go back to sleep.”

“You can’t tell me what to do. I’ll go see him if I damn well please.”

Pat was tired and fed up dealing with all this bullshit. He’d tried to talk sense into her but screw it. She wasn’t interested in his feelings so why should he give a damn about hers? “Okay, piss off then. What do I care? You go be a bitch and see what it gets you. My guess is Kelly will kick your ass and Dan will never speak to you again. Have fun!”

“Thanks, I will!” Kim said, finally finding the zipper and climbing out of the tent. She turned around and zipped it back closed. “And don’t bother following me.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t want nothing to do with you anymore. Go straight to hell for all I care!”

“Yeah, well screw you!” Kim said, turning away and heading in the general direction of Rich and Dan’s tent.

It was chilly outside tonight, much colder than she had expected. She had a warm sweater and a coat back in the
tent but damned if she was going back in there with Pat to get them. Besides, it wasn’t
that
cold out. She could tough it out for a while. Maybe she could curl up with Dan in his sleeping bag? He’d know how to keep her warm, that was for sure.

Approaching the guys’ tent quietly, she looked in through the small window screen and was surprised to only see Rich inside. He was curled up in a sleeping bag in the center of the floor snoring softly but there was no one else in the tent with him.
Where the heck is Dan?
she thought, unaware that he had also woken up about an hour ago and had stumbled over to Liz’s tent to fall asleep beside Kelly without either of the girls waking up or even knowing he was there.

The sound of footsteps crackling in the field off to her right startled her. When she looked, she just caught a hint of a man walking between the rows of corn, heading farther into the lush crops. “Dan?” she said, but was afraid to say it too loudly in case she woke everyone up. Her heart was hammering inside her chest with excitement. If Dan was up and outside on his own, this was her chance—maybe her last chance—to talk to him and convince him she was a better woman than Kelly ever would be. She had no idea why he would be out wandering in the cornfield in the middle of the night but at this point she really didn’t care. Maybe he had woken up needing to be sick like she had earlier and hadn’t wanted anyone else to know about it. Regardless, feeling warmer by the minute, Kim set out into the field to find him.

The corn swallowed her in seconds, cutting off her view of the camp within ten feet. Surrounded on all sides by the massive stalks, it was dark and more than a little claustrophobic, but thankfully there was a partial moon out tonight and the light shone down on her from directly
above, lighting her way as she pushed farther and farther into the field. The crows watched her progress from high above.

“Dan?” she said, louder this time. “Are you out here?”

There was no reply.

A stalk snapped a few rows to her left and Kim thought she heard the sound of quiet laughter. She walked over to where she thought the noise had come from but there was no one there. Was he teasing her? Staying hidden on purpose?

“Come on, Dan. Where are you? Look, I’m sorry about earlier tonight. I was smashed and didn’t know what I was doing. I just wanna talk, okay?”

Everything was quiet for a moment, and just as Kim was about to shout again, she heard a whisper. “Over here.”

The voice had come from deeper into the field but it hadn’t really sounded like Dan’s friendly voice. It was rawer, guttural, the voice of a man badly in need of a drink. It had to be Dan though, didn’t it? There wasn’t anyone else out here for miles in any direction. Disguising his voice, perhaps? Still playing games? She probably deserved to be treated like this, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. Ahead she saw a shadowy silhouette and she hurried toward the hidden man, getting angry now.

“This isn’t funny, you know. Stand still, for God’s sake!”

Kim moved over a row and had who she thought was Dan clearly in her line of sight. He was standing with his back to her, arms spread out to either side at shoulder level, wearing some sort of dirty brown robe or housecoat. When she got close enough to see his long, dirty hair, she stopped walking, her heart racing a mile a minute and jumping into her throat.

That’s not Dan,
she thought.

She nearly screamed but she noticed the cornstalks
sticking haphazardly out of the ends of his shirtsleeves and pants legs and took a good look at his wooden posture; she giggled and let out a sigh of relief instead. It was just a big scarecrow wearing a silly old wig. Nothing to worry about. She started walking again, knowing Dan must be around here somewhere. She stepped around the scarecrow and peered into the darkness beyond. “Come on, Dan. I’m sick and tired of this. If you don’t come out here right now, I’m going back to my tent. Where are you?”

“Right behind you,” the raspy-voiced man she’d heard earlier whispered in her ear, scaring the hell out of her and causing her to spin around as fast as she could.

Kim looked up into the glowing green eyes of Joshua Miller, his previously dry, pasty skin radiant and healthy beneath the light of the moon, his body somehow huge and bulging with muscles beneath his robe. He was grinning down at her, mouth gaping with big yellow teeth, Rich’s blood still staining his thin lips. Kim tried to scream and run away, but the reverend grabbed hold of her before she could move and clamped one of his huge hands across her mouth to stifle any noise she might try to make.

“Shhhhh…” he whispered in her ear. “It’s peaceful out here tonight. Been a long time since I enjoyed a night outside like this and the last thing I want to hear is a Jezebel like you screaming and hollering. Understand?”

Kim barely heard anything he had to say, she was so terrified and intent on trying to get away. She kicked and punched the unholy man as hard as she could, even biting his filthy hand so she could try and scream for help. His grip on her was like an iron vise though, and all she was doing was making him angrier.

“Harlot!” he said, furious that she’d disobeyed him
and bit his hand. “When I say I want quiet…I mean it. You’ve got a big mouth, but I know how to shut you up!”

Joshua used his strong fingers to pry open Kim’s mouth and jam his hand in as far back as he could go, gagging her with his sausagelike digits. He grabbed her tongue as far back as he could and began pulling it out of her throat, stretching and yanking with all his strength until her tender flesh began to rip and tear, a torrent of hot blood spraying out of Kim’s mouth and soaking the front of her shirt.

When he’d separated her tongue from her body, he held her upright and forced her to watch as he slid most of the thin, raw morsel into his salivating mouth and chewed slowly, savoring the sweet meat in front of her horrified eyes. The scarecrow whistled a strange high-pitched tune and held his left arm out to his side. Within seconds, a large crow flew down from the sky and perched upon his offered shoulder. Man and beast looked into each other’s eyes for a moment, silent understanding passing between them, the covenant between Joshua and the crows of Miller’s Grove still as strong as the day the bond had been formed, even if this bird was generations removed from the murder he’d known. Joshua fed his companion the last piece of the woman’s tongue, smiling as the crow eagerly gobbled it down.

Kim was losing a lot of blood and about to pass out but Joshua wasn’t about to let her drift off to sleep and die quite that easily. He still wanted her to suffer, like he had for all those years alone in the dark. Reverend Miller sliced open the defenseless woman’s belly with his razor-sharp nails, forcing his entire hand inside her stomach cavity and pulling out a handful of wet, sloppy intestines. Her ropey intestines steamed in the chilly night air, the sickening stench of peach schnapps and bile
permeating the area. Joshua handed a loop of bloody intestine to his dark-feathered friend and said in a commanding voice, “Flyaway. Go now!”

The crow took to the air, a section of Kim’s intestine firmly clamped in its beak. It rose high up into the night air, dragging the poor woman’s guts with it, easily uncoiling several hundred yards of her innards like unspooling the string on a high-flying kite. Kim was still alive, still on her feet, still trying to scream, but there was nothing she could do. She had no strength left to fight. All she could do was look up into the eyes of the half man-half creature that was killing her. Her small intestine eventually snagged on one of her ribs, mercifully severing the cord attaching her to the far-off crow with an audible
SNAP
and Kim finally closed her eyes.

The scarecrow let her drop from his arms.

Kim was dead before she hit the ground.