1 Chapter 1

Dust covered the windshield. I turned on the wipers in attempt to clear as much as I could. It didnt help much but instead smeared the dust further obscuring my view. There wasnt much to see anyway. Ahead lay the road and crops on both sides as far as the eye could see. Rows of plants that would one day produce all types of fruit and vegetables. Mondale, Iowa is a rural farming town that my family had lived in for generations. I never cared for the farming life. I left when I graduated highschool but now almost two years later I had come home for the first time. My parents passed away about a month ago. Now here I am left with the farm to clean out. I planned to sell it. Though I cant imagine getting much for it.

At the end of the red dirt road lay the lonely wooden house. Nothing lived here exept the scarecrow that lay along the edge of the cornfield. Even the the scarecrow that I had named Joel had a sorrowful look on his face. At a young age I would always come home and do my homework then help out in the fields or tend the livestock. There was no partys or going out on dates growing up. My life always revolved around the farm. It's not so much the work I hated. Somthing about the farm made me uneasy. Mabey it was the sound of the corn rustling or just the way everything looked so depressed. I turned the car off and leaned back in my seat. "Come on Ollie." I thought. Why did I have such a hard time coming here? This was my childhood home. I ran my hand through my hair. Was it to painful? If so what made me feel this pain? Was it the memory of all that I went through? Did I miss my parents? No I refuse to belive that. My parents cared more about the farm than they ever did me.

The truck door creaked in complaint when I pushed it open. As my boots touched the ground everything somehow felt surreal. Everytime I came home dad sat on the front porch in wait. Now only his rocking chair greeted me moving slightly in the wind. Almost as if dad was still there legs crossed over each other. Rocking back and forth. "How was school Ollie?" He would always ask. I would just shrug. I didnt know what to say. School was school and there was nothing special about it. When I walked in the house Mom would always be washing dishes or making dinner. She never acknowledged me or that I existed. It didnt really bother me much. I didnt have anything to say to her anyway. In that sense me and mom were alike. We never really cared to talk to people.

The door was unlocked as it usually was. Nobody came up around here anyway. The door opened to the house as I remembered it. Everything was the same to the smallest detail. It didnt surprise me. Mom hates when anything was'nt put back in the right spot. She would stop everything until whatever was missing was back in its proper place. The floor boards moaned under my weight as if crying out with every footstep. The living room had a eerie feeling. They found dads body in here. He had taken his own life. Many people said it was Moms disappearance a couple months earlier that drove him to it. All the stress and grief had caused him to commit such a act. Truthfully I think he wanted to take his life a long time ago. Mom was the only thing that kept him from pulling the trigger. She kept him sane and grounded and after she disappeared he had nothing left. The room radiated his pain. It moved in the very air and surrounded the house. Somthing caught my eye out the back window. A head peaked over the tall grass. It wasn't a person or anything living. Did dad get a new scarecrow.

I walked across the backyard through the tall grass. I held a hand out feeling blindly. The grass opened up to a clearing where grass had been flattened. Almost like a crop circle. I was right it was a new scarecrow. However this one looked homemade and unlike the one in the front it had a full body not just a upper torso with a head. Its face was leather stitched together making what look like a very human face with scars and empty holes for eyes. I couldn't tell what was under the leather face but I didnt see hay coming through the opening. I wonder what it was made of. "Dude you are disgusting." I almost expected him to say somthing or move but of course he didn't. I walked away cautiously. Something about it made me uncomfortable. It's like when you were a kid and you ran and jumped into bed. There was no close or clear danger but somthing just felt wrong about it.

I walked back to the house still feeling the scarecrow staring at me through the grass. I stopped. The door to the house hung open. The wind knocked the door against the house. I know I closed that behind me. Was someone here? I shook my head. Mabey I'm just paranoid. I haven't been here in years it's possible the door is just broken. I walked to the door studying it carefully. Nothing seemed wrong but I'm no expert on doors. I closed the door locking it behind me. I walked up stairs to what use to be my bedroom taking in every memory. It was full of boxes filled with old crap. A chiffarobe sat on the far wall. That was new. All the furniture in the house was given to mother by my grandma. However this chiffarobe was odd. Mom would never have bought this especially just to have it sit up here collecting boxes. I dodged boxed walking over to the chiffarobe. I reached to try to open it. A loud bang echoed through the house. My heart skipped a beat. That one couldnt have been my mind playing tricks on me. Someone is here.