Why the band directors had the party thrown at the old cornfield, I'm still not sure. It was kind of a depressing place, about ten acres big, with a field of cornstalks choked and killed by weeds, the entire field covered in plants other than corn, and dead, withered fruiting plants. But that will never compare in creepiness to the scarecrows.
There were fifteen scarecrows arranged in three rows of five evenly spaced around the cornfield. Each was dressed in shirts with the chest and torso being yellow plaid, the right sleeve green, and the left sleeve pink. The shirts were identical except for the obviously clumsy stitching; signifying that each was sewn in a hurry. Some of the excess straw stuck out of their sleeves.
Their pants were bright blue, with a patch of pink fabric akin to the left sleeve on their right leg and a patch of green like the right sleeve on their left leg. Straw stuck out from the ends of the legs. They all had on black rain boots and yellow straw hats covering their heads and hiding their "faces". Each scarecrow clung to their post, and according to townsfolk, they switched positions every day.
Another legend was about the old warlock, Master Ansem, a crabby old crony that practice witchcraft and brought some kind of demon creature with him to wreak havoc upon the small town of Twilight. According to legends, he lived in a creepy old cabin that, upon the warlock's death because of a few brave townsfolk, was burned to the ground. He, apparently, cursed all who touched his cornfield and enchanted his scarecrows so that they would attack all who neared it.
"Don't be so freaked out, Sora. They're just stories, after all." My friend/enemy Vanitas said.
"I know they're stories, Vanitas. But you gotta admit: this is kind of a creepy place. You can see why the legends started."
"Aw, is wittle Sowa scared?"
"No, Riku, I'm not." I sighed, annoyed at the silver-haired percussionist's appearance.
"I think someone's in denial." Riku's best friend and twin brother, Reiku, said in that farmboy-like accent of his as he arrived on the scene.
"I just wanna get this over with, okay? It's kind of a weird place." And the party began.
Red, pink, and orange spilled across the land as the party kept going. At three hundred strong, our band, the Pride of Twilight Town, had to find big places to have parties, and this was voted for the start of pre-band party. It was a warm late July evening, and I knew it wouldn't be long until dusk arrived along with the first star of the night. We ran out of soda, so the directors all went to get more. (Hey, we needed a crap-ton of soda to last until the end of the party.) Not too long after they left, the sun had nearly set.
It shouldn't have made a difference at all, but at that moment, I became terrified. I felt eyes on me. And it wasn't that feeling like when ghosts are near, and that junk. I mean a physical being watching me. And I turned around.
Crouching on the ground, eyes locked with mine, were three girls. One was a black, the other, a blonde, and the last, a brunette. Their hair, for whatever reason, was untamed, flying out in random places like wild. Their eyes had the same frenzy look.
They looked kind of like scarecrows, I guess, except gothic, for lack of a better term. They had on black overalls over a slightly transparent dark lavender long-sleeved shirt with golden glittery swirls all over it. The edges of the overalls were decorated with black feathers. Crows' feathers. They had pure black lips like ebony, golden glitter around their eyes, heavily colored with a metallic purple eye shadow and black eyeliner.
As one, their lips peeled back to reveal perfectly white teeth with fangs instead of canines. At first I thought it was a prank.
"Hey." I said. "Whoa, nice costumes. Is that what the colorguard is wearing this year?" They started crawling forward on their hands and feet, looking ready to leap at any moment. "Hello? Guys?"
Then they snarled. It was an inhuman snarl, and it sounded too loud for three people. Then, I turned my head slightly and saw that there were at dozens-no hundreds-more preying upon the band. I gulped, and as they leapt, I let my instincts take over. I ran.
The three goth-scarecrows followed me, leaping and running like frogs…no, wolves. Like wolves. I was too busy looking behind me to see if they were still following me, I ran right into one of the scarecrow's posts/stands (I'm still not sure what they were), and fell onto the ground, in pain. And I swore the scarecrow turned its head as I hit the stand.
The goth-scarecrows closed in on me as I grabbed onto the post to help me stand up and steady myself. Whatisgoingon? I screamed in my head, not bothering to put it to words. In the chaos of the goth-scarecrows attacking, the whole band was panicking and everyone was too busy worrying about themselves to help others. At least, most of the band was. A few brave souls, still being chased by the goth-scarecrows, were trying to help, and basically failing.
The three goth-scarecrows were getting closer, closer. I could smell their breath. It reeked of rotting and raw meat. That's when I realized: they were chasing us because they were hungry. There was a reason why the legends said that no human that entered the cornfield at sunset never returned. If the legends were true, which at that moment, I was starting to believe they were, they were going to eat us.
My heart was in my throat, and I heard something. "Closer." It was a voice, though not one I had heard before. Paranoia'sgettingtomenow. I thought, backing as far against the prop as I could.
I heard it again. "Closer." I was looking around for the source of the voice, my heart hammering. The goth-scarecrows were closing in. "Just a little more…" A second passed.
And after that, I heard wood creaking, briefly. A shadow blocked out the light of the almost-vanished sun for milliseconds before I heard another inhuman noise, a shriek.
All the goth-scarecrows turned as a thud resonated in my ears and I noticed one of the three was on the ground. The figure, which had just probably saved my life, was crouched over it. One more shriek, and that goth-scarecrow was gone. All the goth-scarecrows then suddenly shrieked at once and started running in their crouches.
I watched as the figure chased the goth-scarecrows away. "Get out! Git! Git! You're not welcome here!" The person yelled at them. "Or do you want to wind up like your friend?" The goth-scarecrows shrieked at once and disappeared into the earth. The figure seemed to cross their arms. "I didn't think so." The person said in a smart-alecky tone. In the dim light, I couldn't see much except for the fact that it was a person.
The person was fairly close to me, so I called out. "Hey!" The figure turned. I walked closer. "Uh… thanks. You saved my hide."
"No prob. It's my job to pound those things to dust." Now that the person wasn't screaming at the top of their lungs, I could tell that it was either a girl, or a boy that hadn't yet gone through puberty.
"Yeah, but still-" Then the person stepped closer to me, in a patch of light, and I froze. It was a scarecrow. The person was dressed just like them, from the boots to the hat and the poor stitching.
The person-scarecrow- blinked at me. "What?" The scarecrow asked.
"You're… a scarecrow…" I deadpanned.
"And…"
"You… were on that stand…" The scarecrow nodded. "And you… were… why would you wait so long to pull a prank?"
"Prank?" The scarecrow laughed. "You honestly think this is a prank? Buddy, I just saved your life, scared the Shadows out of here, and you think this is a prank?"
"Shadows?"
"It's a long story. But surely you've heard the legends. I've heard some of them. You should know about us."
"You mean the Scarecrows?" The band was gathering around the two of us, most of them had dropped jaws and bugged-out eyes.
"Yeah."
"You… were brought into sentience…by Master Ansem."
"Yep!" The Scarecrow confirmed cheerfully.
"And she did so… so that everyone that stepped foot on this field would die." Screams then erupted.
"Whoa, whoa!" The Scarecrow said, shaking its head and waving its arms in a very exaggerated manner, as if it didn't have bones. Wait…it didn't. "That's not us! That's the Shadows! We were brought to life to keep people safe from the Shadows!"
"We?" I asked weakly.
"All fifteen of us, duh." The Scarecrow said, motioning around the field to the other twenty-three, still on their posts. "It's been a while since we had guests. We've missed the company. And oh crap! I forgot! I have a job to do!"
"Huh?" Was all that could come out of my mouth.
"I'm Timekeeper! I have to wake up everyone!" The person started grumbling. "Because they're just too lazy to wake up on their own." The Scarecrow then called over her shoulder. "Stay there and wait for me!"
"Okay, uh…"
"Naminé!" She yelled.
I cocked my head as she ran to the other end of the property. "What?" I yelled.
"My name!"
She climbed onto the farthest stand and started shaking its occupant awake. A few seconds later, another Scarecrow started running towards us. When it came into the light, I saw its face. Holy crap. It has a human-looking face.
"So, you'rethe people that crawled onto this field and stayed until dusk?" The Scarecrow scoffed. "Losers." The Scarecrow was a she. She had yellow-blonde hair that was chin length, and as she removed her hat, letting it dangle around her neck, two strands slicked up like antennae became visible. She had turquoise eyes, a seemingly permanent look of scorn, and she towered over everyone. The first thing that went through my head was Holycrap.Scarecrowshave genders?
Riku, who didn't react well to taunting, stepped up by my side. "Hey!" He almost shouted. "We're not losers. We're band kids."
She sighed. "Oh, boy. Band kid losers."
"Larxene!" Naminé must work pretty fast, because at that moment, she was on the stand next to hers, shaking that Scarecrow awake. At least, at that moment I hoped that Naminé was a she. Either that or he was a boy with an extremely high-pitched voice and a girlish name. "Can you please not mock our guests?"
Larxene turned to glare daggers at the other female and Naminé just sighed as that Scarecrow stirred. "Did I hear 'guests'?" He asked.
Naminé nodded. "Yeah! We have people visiting!"
"Sweet!" The Scarecrow jumped off of his platform. He had really long black-and-silver hair pulled into a ponytail, one yellow eye, and the other eye covered by an eye patch and had scars over that side of his face. "It's been ages since we've had visitors." He smiled at us as if we were the greatest Christmas present. Looking at the three of them, even Larxene seemed to be happy to see us.
Naminé nodded. "At least twenty years."