Hey, guys. So, this theme is up way, way, WAY late and I apologize for that. I'd originally planned to get this up yesterday evening but I didn't end up getting home until ten and I was so exhausted from the day that I sort of just passed out. Sorry for those who may have been waiting.

Anyway, since the last couple themes have been on the lighter side, I decided to make this one a little scarier. It is the month of October after all.

With that said, in this theme, Seto and Alissa buy a vacation home in the country. They find an old scarecrow in the attic and this scarecrow isn't normal.

Enjoy!

"The scarecrow walks at midnight."

-R.L. Stine

VII.

"Jeez, the people who lived here before us must have left in a hurry," Alissa replied as she scanned the stuffed attic. "You don't think they wanted any of this stuff, do you?"
"Tch, if they wanted it they wouldn't have left it," Seto replied tonelessly as he aired open the garbage bag in his hands. "Let's just get this dump cleaned out like we planned. You know how I feel about dust. And it smells foul in here." He moved to the right side of the attic and began shoving things into the large bag.

"Okay, okay. It's probably just because it's an old house. Once we get rid of all this stuff it should get rid of the moldy smell." She aired open the other garbage bag and moved to the other side to start tossing things out. She had stuffed the garbage bag about half way when she reached a long, wooden crate. Whoa, what the hell is in there? She set the garbage bag down and heaved open the crate.

"Whoa! Hey, Seto! Come look at this thing!" she called over her shoulder.

"Tch, everything in this attic is a piece of junk, what could you have possibly found that requires my attention," the brunet huffed as he approached her.

"Look at this thing," Alissa repeated, carefully pulling the object out.

It was a scarecrow. A rather scary looking one, made with a weird textured material and an unevenly stitched mouth. It was missing one of its button eyes and wore a baggy pair of overalls.

"Maybe we should keep it," she replied, handing it to the brunet to examine closer.

"Tch, why would we keep this? It's a piece of junk. It's obviously poorly made; the material feels like skin."

"That kind of makes it scarier though doesn't it?"

"We aren't keeping that in this house. Who knows what kind vermin have made their home in it."

"I wasn't saying that we'd keep it inside the house. I just think it would be a cool decoration to have outside. It is almost Halloween."

"I'm aware of the date."

"Well, you don't want our nice, new vacation home to get egged by a bunch of brats because we have no decorations up, do you?"

"Tch, fine. But we're getting rid of it after this year. I don't want that stupid thing stinking up the attic."

"Fine."

xxx

A loud crash from downstairs woke the couple later that night. They were wide awake in an instant.

"What the hell was that?" Alissa asked.

"I don't know," Seto replied, reaching into the nightstand drawer to pull out his hand gun. He stood and looked over his shoulder to toss a warning to his girlfriend in bed. "Stay here."

"Oh, no, I'm coming with you," she argued, reaching under the bed to grab the baseball bat they kept there.

"Fine," he sassed, knowing it was useless to try and talk her out of it. "Stay behind me."

She nodded before climbing out of bed and falling in behind her boyfriend with the bat at the ready. The couple walked silently and cautiously down the stairs, both on high alert. When they reached the foot of the stairs, they could see the light coming from the kitchen.

"Uh, you turned the light off when you came up, didn't you?" Alissa whispered.

"Obviously, I'm not an idiot," he whispered back before repeating his earlier warning. "Stay behind me."

She nodded her understanding and held on tightly to his upper arm as the two slowly approached the kitchen. What they saw made Seto frown in irritation and Alissa recoil in fear.

"What the hell?" Alissa exclaimed.

Sitting in the kitchen chair, was the scarecrow.

"Okay, maybe you're right. Maybe we should throw it out," Alissa replied, her voice quivering slightly.

"But what about the brats egging our house?" Seto asked, teasingly. "Are you afraid of it?"

"We found it in a sealed crate. It was put in there for a reason."

"Yeah, because it's ugly."

"Shh! Stop saying stuff like that, you'll make it mad!"

"Make it mad? Tell me you don't actually think that thing is alive."

"Well, you didn't put it in here and I definitely didn't so who did?"

"Tch, it's obviously a poorly planned prank."

"I've seen enough scary movies to know that finding a thing that shouldn't be alive in your kitchen in the middle of the night when it wasn't left there is a huge red flag that the thing that isn't supposed to be alive is actually alive."

"Don't be stupid. The stupid brats in the neighborhood obviously broke in and put it there as a stupid prank."

"I am not being stupid!" she defended.

"Alissa, it's a scarecrow. It isn't alive. It's a stupid prank and I'll bring it up with the authorities in the morning so it doesn't happen again. Now go on back to bed. I'll put it back out front."

She nodded slowly, swallowing around the lump of fear sitting deep in her throat. He's right, she reasoned. We're in a new place, it's probably just the nervousness of buying a new house. Scarecrows don't come alive. But as the brunet headed to the front yard with the scarecrow, Alissa could have sworn she saw it smirk.

So, that's it for this theme. I know it doesn't seem like much happened but I do plan on doing a continuation of this theme in one of the later themes, so this is merely part one. Sorry again for getting this up a day late! I hope it was worth the wait. I'll be uploading theme eight later today as well so I'm caught up. Part of the promise I made myself before starting this October theme challenge was that I wasn't going to let myself get any more than a theme behind. I intend to fulfill that promise as best as I can. Anyway, enough of my rambling. I hope you guys enjoyed and I'll talk to you all again later today when I upload theme seven. Thanks for reading!