1. Chapter 1
“Harps, I’m sorry, but this house is fucking creepy,” my sister, Codi, says. “Are you sure you want to live here?”
I look around the living area of the fully furnished farmhouse. It looks stuck in time, the flowered wallpaper peeling a bit, and the paintings of various farm animals on the walls are in gaudy gold frames, but the sage green couches look on the newer side, and there’s even a flatscreen TV.
I tuck a lock of my short dark hair behind my ear, fingers brushing over the multiple piercings working their way up the shell of it.
“It’s not that bad,” I say.
She walks to one of the large windows facing the cornfield. “You’re going to say that when a creepy ass scarecrow is staring directly into your window? I know you have a strange love for them but come on! It’s scary looking!”
I walk over toward where she’s standing, the floorboards creaking under my feet as I stop in front of her and look outside.
We arrived at the house late last night, dropped our bags on the floor and passed out on the queen-sized bed upstairs.
Too tired to do anything else after our ten-hour drive from Grove City to Silas Valley, population five thousand. I guess five thousand and one now.
The fields were pitch black when we got here, so I hadn’t seen the scarecrow before.
His straw-filled arms are open wide on the wooden cross.
His face made of cloth, the color of khaki and moss, with dare I say, a charming threaded smirk and unseeing hollows for eyes, staring right at me under a dark brown floppy hat.
A smirk that matches his climbs up my lips. “I don’t know,” I tilt my head and narrow my eyes to try and see him better. “I think he’s kind of handsome.”
“You’re so weird, Harps. Though, I should have known that would be your answer. You are a lover of all strange things.”
She’s right about that. Unlike Codi—who is a blonde bombshell that works at a marketing firm and is afraid of her own shadow—I’ve always been the sister that gravitated toward the stranger things in life.
Besides my love for scarecrows, which probably started after visiting this place so many years ago and seeing the town covered in decorative ones, I thrive outside the box.
Horror is my favorite movie genre, I believe ghosts are real, for sure aliens. You can always catch me watching a documentary on the unexplained, even my job as an adult content creator isn’t the norm. Though that has become more acceptable and widespread now than it was even a few years ago.
I continue to stare at the scarecrow, my eyes raking over his body that honestly looks well-muscled and very human for a thing made of straw and cloth.
“Harper.”
A shiver races up my spine when Codi says my name, placing her hand on my shoulder. I blink and meet her blue-eyed gaze with my brown ones.
She grins. “Wait! You are creeped out by it, aren’t you?!”
I shake my head. “I’m really not. It’s just cold in here. I need to figure out how to work the heat.”
Harper chuckles like she doesn’t believe me. She turns me away from the window and guides me toward a door that leads to the basement. The urge to look over my shoulder at the scarecrow is strong, but I refrain. I’ll have to get a closer look later after Codi leaves to go back to Grove City.
She opens the door to the basement and turns on the overhead light with a cord hanging down from it, illuminating the dusty staircase.
“The packet the landlord left said you need to start up the boiler downstairs,” she says.
“And let me guess, you’re not going down there with me?”
She looks down into the basement and shivers dramatically. “You couldn’t pay me enough. I’m not going to be the first one killed in this horror movie.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re so dramatic. Even if this place is haunted, I’m sure the ghosts are nice.”
She shivers again. “Still don’t get why you want to live here.”
I place my hands on my wide hips and stare at her. “First, the landlord offered the first month rent free, and the place furnished. I’m not passing that up in this economy.”
“You make enough money to not have to worry about that.”
“I’m still building my business, and every penny counts.
And, you know I’ve always loved Silas Valley.
I want a fresh start after my breakup with Maria.
I swear, everywhere I turned in Grove City, I’d run into one of the friends we shared or acquaintances we hung out with.
I like that nobody will know me here, and the quiet.
I think this is going to be what I need. ”
“I know, I get it. But it’s just… you haven’t been back here since we were kids and Mom and Dad brought us to the Silas Harvest Festival on that horrible RV trip,” she gags.
“You’re such a princess. We had fun!”
“Maybe that’s how you remember it, but all I remember is long hours on the road, scary people in masks jumping out at us at the corn maze, and Mom talking about a tourist going missing at the same time we were in town.”
“I forgot about that last part.”
“Yeah, I don’t know if they ever found him.”
I make a mental note to look that up later. I’m betting YouTube has a documentary on it.
“Hopefully they did. But that was many years ago now, and that doesn’t mean the town isn’t safe. Their crime rate is practically zero. I did my research."
“Well, the good news is your lease is month to month, right?”
“It is.”
“So, if you change your mind and want to come home, I’ll welcome you with open arms.” She looks down the stairs again and cringes. “As long as you don’t bring any ghosts with you.”
“Boo!” I yell.
Codi yelps and gently shoves me. “Don’t do that!”
I squeeze her shoulder. “Everything is going to be fine, big sis. I have a good feeling about this move.”
“That’s what matters. I want you to be happy wherever you choose to plant your roots. Mom and Dad would want that, too.”
I smile sadly at her. Our parents died together in a car accident years ago. It’s been us together against the world since then, but she’s right.
“Thanks.”
She smiles back at me. “Now go turn on the heat. It is drafty in here.”
I salute her and make my way down the creaky steps, hoping there are actually some nice ghosts down here. It would definitely make things more interesting.
I shake my head at myself. Codi is right, I am weird.