"It's starting to get colder now. School's going to start soon. I can always tell by the weather changing," I commented.
Jenny's eyes were glued to the whispering trees of the woods located just beyond the stalks of corn. I looked out at the peninsula of corn separating us from the grove. I then turned to Jenny, who was sitting next to me on the top of the Suburban. A look of anxiety was definite on her face as she crossed her arms and rubbed her upper arms with her hands. Jenny shook her head as she kept her worried eyes to the trees.
"You cold?" I asked.
Jenny didn't answer.
"Scared?" I tried.
She shrugged her shoulders.
Getting frustrated from not obtaining a response, I leaned back onto my hands and narrowed my eyes at the grove. "What are you staring at?"
Jenny slowly turned her head to look at me. "Why did we have to come here?" She framed her chin in her hands and looked back toward the trees. "It's scary here."
I snickered. "Scary? Nothing is happening! We're only sitting here waiting for those guys." I motioned to where four of my friends, all males, were a short distance away. With matches and lighters, they were carefully trying to ignite a torch that they had constructed out of dry, dead brush. One of them was banging a flashlight against his hand as it flickered on and off.
An impression of shame whisked through my body. I felt guilty knowing that it was all set up. I was clearly aware of my brother, Christopher and his friend, Jared, hiding in the abandoned house within the grove. They were waiting there with lighters and cans of hairspray to propel fireballs from the old house. Still, I giggled to myself, fortunate to have been let in on the situation. I had been out to the abandoned house before. There was nothing there but a few bats, and old furnace, debris, and a hole in the floor. The only thing to be frightened of was plunging though the landing and falling into the cellar.
I watched Cody, a green bandanna packaged around his head, his skinny fingers working furiously with a lighter to ignite the dead brush on the torch. It was amusing to me how they could be such good actors, not even handing Jenny a hint of the horror they arranged to embed on her. I sensed a smirk developing on my face, and to conceal it from Jenny, I sloped forward and dangled my head into the open driver's side window. My long hair tumbled down the door of the Suburban.
"You're nuts!" Tammy cried, laughing. She was sitting patiently in the passenger's seat waiting to venture into the "haunted" woods.
"Why are you sitting in there? Are you scared, too? The Bogeyman gonna get you?" I teased in a pernicious tone. I saw a light amplify out of the corner of my eye. I elevated my head and looked toward my accomplices. The torch was gleaming with radiant tints of oranges, reds, and yellows. Impressions of the flames danced upon the four faces of my friends. Their eyes glistened with the flicker of the fire blazing from the brush.
Soon, the carriers of the burning branch and a flashlight were marching in the direction of the Suburban. Jeremy, Tammy's boyfriend, went over to where she was waiting in the car. I could hear the car door open behind me and then slam shut. Together, Tammy and Jeremy walked around the front of the Suburban. I climbed down onto the accessible window sill. From there, I vaulted onto the pasture.
David was assisting Jenny in getting down from the roof. She was hesitant about trampling through the corn and entering the grove. I journeyed over to them and delayed behind Casey.
"Let's not go," Jenny whined.
I glanced at Cody and gave him a sinister smile as we trailed after our friends. Jason was already engulfed by stalks of corn. His torch could be seen elevated above the green foliage, destined to arrive at the trees.
I stepped in a row succeeding David and Jenny. Overwhelming stalks towered over my head, almost imprisoning me in the crops, trapping me within the brittle, leafy stalks. Fragrances of raw, crisp corn and moist soil took over my nostrils.
"Is there a story behind this place?" I wondered, truly unaware if there was or not.
"Ask Jason. He'd know. He only lives about a mile from here," Cody informed me.
"Jason!" I bellowed. "Wait up!"
"Hold on, we're almost there!" he hollered back.
Sure enough, we reached the end of the row within seconds. The trees from the grove loomed above our small figures, hesitating over us, eager for us to intrude on their sorrowful stillness.
"Is there a story behind this place?" I repeated my question, moving near Jason.
"From what my grandpa told me, there is," Jason declared. We all sloped closer, curious in hearing the tale. Jason continued, "About fifty years ago, on an August night just like tonight, there were several murders here.
"My grandpa was in the search party that had been formed to search the area for the bodies. This guy named James Cracket went crazy, killing his wife and their five-year-old son. He had sliced them to pieces with a hatchet." Jason elevated his arm and dropped it in a severing gesture. "The guy was nuts. They tossed him into the state hospital. He escaped, though. The police found him. He was back here at the house. Dead. He killed himself after painting some stupid painting on the wall."
"Did they ever find the bodies?" I speculated.
"Nope. I heard that, when Cracket came back here, he moved the bodies so they would never be found. My grandpa thinks that he just buried the bones in the field but-," Jason explained.
"You're so full of it, Jason," David jumped in. "We all know that the bodies and the spirits are all still in the house."
Jenny gasped and buckled her hand over her mouth.
"Don't worry. I've been out here tons of times and nothing has ever happened to me," Jason said as he dodged into the woods. Reluctantly, Jenny and the rest of us followed.
There was no apparent trail out to the deserted house. The light from the stars and moon had gradually dissolved, forsaken by he masses of trees. The only source of light thrived from the torch and the flashlight. From the blaze of the torches and the light from the flashlight, I could observe and old, rusted stove among an accumulation of garbage and debris. I cautiously moved around it. Jason was far ahead of us. Cody and I moved hastily, bounding though the tall grass to catch up with Jason.
Turning around to look back at Jeremy, Tammy, David, and Jenny, making sure they were faraway, Jason whispered, "Should I give Christopher and Jared a sign?"
Cody nodded.
"Where ya at, Mr. Dead Guy?!" Jason bellowed through the woods. I was beginning to see an outline of the abandoned house emerging before us.
Jenny squealed behind me. I jumped, unconscious of the fact that they had already reached where we were standing.
"C'mon! We know you're here!" Jason hollered.
On cue, a hissing wail shot out and glass ruptured as a ball of fire projected from a window of the house. The fire lit up the area around the house as shattered window panes drifted though the air and chimed about the house even after the fireball had ceased.
Jenny screamed as she stapled herself to David, clinging on to him like she would never let go. Her voice, although smothered, could be heard babbling as she buried her head into David's chest. Tammy stood erect in shock, gawking at the window where the fire had grown from. A low moaning noise was seeping from her vocal cords.
"I'm gonna pass out, I'm gonna pass out!" Jenny repeated as she lifted her head from David's chest. "Let's go back, let's go back!"
"Jason began dashing though the brush, yelling out, "I'm gonna get whoever's doing this!" The flames from his torch hustled after him, following him through the night.
I courageously snatched Cody's arm and pulled him though the trees as I dashed after Jason.
"Come back!" Jenny screamed after us. "He'll get you!"
Jason doubled over in laughter. He stumbled to the ground, his torch fleeing from his hands and descending to the tall grass. Cody and I reached the spot where Jason was lying on the ground, his laughter muffled in the tall underbrush.
Swoosh! Another fireball coasted through the window. At the same time, one advanced from the open doorway. The flames illuminated the whole house and the yard lingering around it. I squinted at a downstairs window, opposite the side where the fire grew from. A younger woman was standing in the window, watching us.
Shrieking formed behind us. I turned to look and saw the light from the flashlight pushing back toward the cornfield. Jason crawled up from the grove and asked, still laughing, "They went back?" He began digging through the grass where his torch had landed and retrieved it. The flame had diluted and, as he raised it to the sky, diminished to nothing but tiny sparks. He cast the branch back to the ground.
"They're going back," I told him, looking back to the window of the house. It was empty.
After the flashlight light disappeared, we headed to the old house. I followed Jason and Cody up the steps to the doorway. When I got into the house, I saw Christopher hunkered in the corner just beyond the large hold sequestered in the wood floor.
"They scared?" he wondered as he moved toward us, avoiding the large cavity in the landing.
Jason began to snicker again. "Terrified," he said as he rapidly nodded his head.
"They already went back," I added as I peered around the house. "Who else did you guys bring out here?" I wondered, looking for the woman I saw in the window.
The gleam from Christopher's flashlight shone on Jason's face. "You probably gave it away. I could hear you laughing like crazy out there," Christopher said, ignoring my question.
Jason shrugged, still laughing. "I couldn't help it," he said. "Could you hear Jenny? She's all, 'He's gonna get you!'"
"I heard-"
Christopher was interrupted by another scream.
"That was Jenny again," I said, still searching the room. "Where's Jared?"
"Right here," Jared declared as he stepped out from another room. He was fidgeting with an object in his hand. "My lighter's broken."
Christopher let his flashlight drop from Jason's face as the light shone in the next room. Something from the other room caught my eye. A beautiful mural was painted across the wall. The painting took up the whole wall. It was a picture of a cornfield, lustrous will bold shades of green and orange as the sun set beyond the row of corn. Oddly, although the rest of the house was tattered, the painting seemed to be in perfect condition.
"Anyone else with you guys?" Cody asked.
"Nope, just us," Christopher informed him.
"Who's the girl with you?" I wanted to know.
"What are you talking about?" Jared asked. "It's just me and Christopher."
"But I saw some girl by-" I started.
"Ready to continue scaring them?" Christopher invited, once again interrupting me.
"Ready," we all said simultaneously.
"All right," Christopher explained as we all leaned in to hear the plan. "My truck is parked about a quarter of a mile away. You guys can walk with Jared and I halfway, and we'll speed back to town. That way we'll get back before you guys do and Jenny and Tammy will never know that we were even out here."
We all nodded, comprehending the scheme. It had been planned earlier, but we were going through all of the brief details. Cody, Jason, and I were going to roll around in the muddy pasture and simulate that we were hauled into the opening of the floor by some massive, ghost-like man. Then were going to take off running back through the field, screaming at Jeremy to get us out of there because the ghost was hunting us down.
After we were all in understanding of the scheme, we left the house. I was the first one out of the house. "What the heck?" I said as I stepped out onto the porch. I watched as a missile of fire, streaking high from a torch, ripped though the tree toward the cornfield where we came from.
"Huh?" Cody wondered as he stepped out after me.
I quickly rotated back to the house, plowing into Cody. I ducked behind him, my head peeking over his shoulder as I peered back into the woods. "Someone's out there," I announced. My eyebrows crumbled in panic. "I saw someone with a torch running through the woods."
"It was probably David or Jeremy coming to help us scare the girls," Christopher said as he moved around Cody and I and then down the steps.
"But it wasn't coming toward us. It was going back toward the field, like they were running from here. Plus, Jason had the only torch," I explained as I stepped out from behind Cody and motioned toward the cornfield.
"They probably made another torch," Christopher said. He was transporting the only source of light. I followed after Christopher and Cody. Following me, I could hear Jason and Jared's feet tramping over the grass and rasping on broken twigs as we headed in the opposite direction that we had arrived from.
Soon, we were standing on the edge of the cornfield. Clouds were beginning to take over the sky. They blanketed over the stars and moon masking them from existence. A shiver crept down my spine. I began to feel frightened. My mind started composing images which aroused my nerves. In my mind, I saw the torch racing through the woods toward the cornfield. What if that person is standing, waiting for us in the field? I speculated.
"Maybe we should just go back," I suggested.
"What? No way," Christopher said as he marched into a row of corn. I watched him vanish within the leaves and stalks. It was as if he had been inhaled by the field.
"Christopher," I complained. "This is getting stupid."
"You're just getting scared!" Christopher called out from the corn.
"Go!" Jared shoved at Cody to follow Christopher.
Cody and I ducked into the same row Christopher had disappeared into. As before, I perceived Jason and Jared trekking behind me. The field was muddy at the point where we entered the cornfield. Mud caked to the bottom of my sandals, making it so that my feet were heavy with moistened earth. "I can't see," I protested.
"Neither can I," Jared said. "Can you see very good back there, Jason? Jason?" Jared stopped. "Hold up, guys," he announced. "We lost Jason."
"Where did he go?" Christopher asked impatiently. He stopped and turned toward Jared.
"I don't know where he went," Jared said.
"Maybe he went back," Cody suggested.
"Jason!" Christopher yelled.
An owl released a hoot from the grove while a dog howled in the distance. Crickets chirped about the cornfield, but Jason didn't answer.
"He'll find his way. He knows this area like the back of his hand," Christopher told us. "Let's go."
"You guys, maybe we should go back, too," I insinuated as we began walking deeper into the corn. "What if Jason's hurt or something? I mean, I can't even lift my feet anymore because it's so muddy here and-"
"Nothing's going to happen," Cody stated.
"Oh, great," Christopher confirmed ahead of us. Fury was intensifying in his voice. I saw him banging the unlit flashlight on his hand. "Jared, I told you to put new batteries in this thing! Now what are we supposed to do? Feel our way through the corn? Forget this idea. Let's just go back."
I turned around so I was facing where we had advanced from. "Jared, we're going ba-. Jared? Where is Jared? Okay, this is getting really stupid now," I said. I was getting irritated and frustrated. "This isn't funny!" I called out throwing my hands in the air. They whacked the stalks to the sides of me, pushing them outward. "Ouch!" I felt cuts implant on the skin of my hands and forearms.
"Are you guys trying to scare me?" I rotated back in the direction of Christopher and Cody. "Guys?" I whimpered, not seeing anyone in front of me. "You guys! Stop it! You aren't going to scare me!" I yelled out, lying. My voice seemed to disappear as soon as it left my mouth, almost like I hadn't said a word. I turned once again and a scream tore from my mouth with what I saw.
A feeble, luminous boy stood only inches before me. A blood-soaked blanket was tossed over his tiny shoulder, a maroon-stained teddy bear clutched under his arm. Terror exploded inside of my body as I turned and hurried, running continuously through the corn. My feet were exhausting to lift as the mud was clinging, retaining me to the field like weights.
Stopping abruptly, I collapsed to my knees. I concealed my head in my hands and sobbed. Breath heaved out of my mouth and nostrils as I gasped for more air. My hands trembled with fear and anxiety, wanting to tear free of the corn restraining my body, to rip through the stalks and find my lost friends.
Wetness soaked through the fabric of my jeans as I knelt in the muddy soil. I moved my trembling hands to the floor of the field. Mud oozed through my fingers as I pushed myself back to my feet. I kicked excess mud from my shoes and sock and thrust my hair back with my hand, leaving black silt packed within my golden locks.
I had no idea where I was, not knowing which direction I had run in. Taking deep breaths, I tried to calm myself down. The sky was no help in being conscious of where I was. The clouds were thick over the stars and moon, making it so direction could not be told. Follow the rows, I said to myself. Follow the rows.
A light suddenly sprouted in front of me, growing larger as it grew neared. I could tell it was a torch as it came closer to me, the flames were dancing over my face, gaping down at me as it was held elevated above stalks. "I'm over here!" I called out.
I received no response. "W-w-who's there?" I whimpered. Still, no answer. The light continued to advance, approaching me. It was now only a short distance away. Terror once again influenced my nerves. I once more remembered the torch I saw racing though the woods. My imagination ran wild as I watched as someone, or something, moved through the stalks of corn, floating over the mud.
"Who are you?" I desperately wanted, yet didn't want, to know. Only a whisper advanced from my mouth. "Who's there?" I was stiff with dread. My sandals were cemented into the mud, lugging me down like quicksand, embracing me beneath the corn. "Please stay away," I murmur, my voice quiet and shaking. A dense frame stopped before me, only a few leaves from the stalks between us.
The dark figure standing between the rows before me planted the torch into the field. I couldn't make out who, or what, it was. It seemed like the outline of a woman, but I cold see right through the person like a transparency. As it came closer, I realized that it was a woman. The woman I had seen earlier in the window of the house. She was now only inches from where I was grounded in the field. Tears streamed down her colorless, fine cheeks. She was staring at me, wanting to say something.
"Wh-what do you want?" I asked, my voice still quiet and quivering.
"Please leave," she said. Her voice was soft and caring. "He will do to you what he has done to my son and I."
"Who? What did who do?" Another shiver tingled down my spine. "This isn't happening!" I screamed. "It's my imagination!"
"You're friends are that way." She pointed through a row of corn and then handed me her torch with the other hand. "Take this torch to help find your way. Please never return. He is still here. It will not end until we are found. Our souls cannot rest until our bodies are laid to rest far from here."
It hit me just then. This was the wife of Cracket and the small, feeble boy had been her son! "Tell me where the bodies are! I can tell the police!" I told her. "You can trust me."
"I cannot tell you," she said.
A tear dropped from my eye. "How can I help you if you can't tell me?" I viewed her melancholy, troubled face. The same look I had seen on her face earlier in the downstairs window of the abandoned house. "Your house!" I cried excitedly. "Are the bodies in that old house?"
A look of joy danced on the woman's face. "Yes!" she cried happily. "Between the rows." A look of terror suddenly replaced the joyful look on her face. "I must go. I've told you too much," she said quickly as she turned around. "He knows I told you!" The woman shrieked as she disappeared into the rows of corn.
"What rows are you talking about?!" I called after her. But she was gone. I watched in awe and then, completely trusting the woman, moved to where she had pointed. Confused, yet still terrified, I took the torch she left me and hurried my way back to where the Suburban was running, it its headlights blinding my teary eyes as I advanced from the cornfield.
"Where did you go?" I heard Cody's voice.
I moved out of the bright lights and rushed toward my friends. They were all staring at me with odd looks spread upon their faces. "Go! We have to go!" I cried as I pushed at each of them. "Let's get out of here! He's coming! He knows we're here!" I rambled, my voice clamoring.
"Hey," Cody said, grabbing me by the shoulders. "What happened to you? Jenny and Tammy know. They know that we set them up."
"No!" I screeched as I plowed through my friends toward the Suburban. "It's real! Don't you understand?! He's here! We have to leave." My hands browsed through the air, tearing through the fog that had developed. I was frantic. I opened the door to the large vehicle and hopped behind the wheel. "Get in!" I screamed at my friends, eyeing them. They were all staring at me like I was crazy. None of them moved.
Cody came over to the open window. "Will you settle down? You're just scared because we left you in the field. We were just trying to get you riled up a bit," he admitted.
I looked around him at my group of friends. "Where are Christopher and Jared?" I needed to know.
"They went back to the house to see if you went there," Cody reported.
"Here come Christopher and Jared!" Jason yelled out to us.
We all hushed. Whisking corn rustled, intensifying our ears. Stalks could be seen being forced through and propelled out of the way. The chirping of the crickets abruptly ceased. Wind suddenly accumulated and ripped around us. My hair whipped about my face through the open window as I opened the door of the Suburban and cautiously stepped out. I lifted my head to the sky above the corn.
"That's not Christopher and Jared!" I screamed through the blustering gusts as a flash of fire drilled through the corn. Light beamed all around us as the ball of fire swept over the cornfield, wailing a high-pitched shriek. The heat was massive, lighting up my dirty face. I shielded my face from the heat as I watched the inferno lacerate throughout the corn. The shrieking was deafening, hurting my sensitive ears.
Everyone watched, concealing their ears and standing motionless just outside of the cornfield. Looks of horror were firmly established on their terrified faces. Each stared in awe at the holocaust floating over the corn.
Somehow, through my fear, I noticed that the ball of fire lingering over the field looked similar to the landscape painted on the wall inside the Cracket house. I gasped as an explanation suddenly hurdled into my understanding.
"I know!" I bellowed. My arms flung behind me as I cried out to the ball of fire in the sky. The blaze halted, idling over the corn. "Behind the painting in the house! The painting! The painting!" I repeated.
The inferno dawdled for a second before shrieking as it was suctioned back into the woods. The wind died and soon the crickets were once again twittering, calling out through the night. The crickets continued chirping, chirping between the rows.
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