Horror Bites - Scarecrows

A new  Horror Bites Challenge went up and the story arrived immediately in my head. Took a while before I had a chance to get it down, but I think it works. Enjoy!

 

George thought it a stupid idea at the time, but the rest of the family out voted him, so here they were and he wasn’t even able to say ‘I told you so.’

His annoyance flicked between those that stopped to take photos and have a good laugh, and his dad.

They all should have known better after last years fiasco, but no, his dad insisted that it was going to be good this year, his focus purely on outdoing the neighbours.

So his dad had asked the Dooley Brothers for help, being that they were the ‘Halloween Professionals’ … a name none of them knew the true meaning of at that point – even his dad who claimed to know them and move in their circles.

Maybe the Dooley Brothers had thought his dad was talking the piss, or someone further up decided to teach him a lesson. George didn’t know. He only knew that they’d grabbed them the night after, tortured them a little and then put them here out on the front lawn, stuffed and mounted too look like scarecrows, on display for the entire neighbourhood to see.

But the neighbours didn’t realise it was them. They thought they were stuffed effigies, seeing as their family always went mad on the Halloween decoration. They’d all been and taken their photos, and had a right laugh. No-one had wondered where they were - it was holiday week, everyone assumed they were away.

George wasn’t sure how much longer he would survive. He knew his sister was already gone – her body hanging limp, and his mum didn’t look far behind. He only hoped that they wouldn’t come again tonight, to inject whatever stuff was keeping them paralysed. George thought he’d heard his dad say he’d only wanted the display for two weeks. It wasn’t long now.  

306 Words