“Daddy… do scarecrows bleed?”

I was lost in thought driving to drop off my six year old daughter Angelia to her mom’s for the week when she blurted out that show stopping question.

“Hmm? What? What do you mean sweetie?” I asked, glancing back at her as your she daydreamed out the window.

“I saw one in that field. It looked all icky and weird. And covered in blood,” she said, her voice a mixture of fright and concern.

I looked at the side mirror toward the cornfields we were passing by and nodded absently.

“I’m sure it’s nothing. It won’t hurt you,” I told her.

I should have paid attention but my mind was on this separation.

I knew Marcie wanted a divorce, and I knew there wasn’t much left for me to do to stop it. Getting a lawyer, trying to juggle two minimum wage jobs and handle a six year old was taxing enough so we agreed to week on week off for Angelia until we could settle on things that would be permanent going forward.

Thankfully she was more concerned with her pet iguana and watching My Little Pony than the problems we were having, but her little comment about the scarecrow had me wondering if her worry was expressing itself in a different way.

When we got there, I had forgotten almost entirely about the incident and focused instead on the new car parked in Marcie’s garage.

It didn’t take me long to find it belonged to a new boyfriend, Todd who was “just leaving” as I gathered Angelia’s things. Had she deliberately made sure that he lingered just long enough to cement the idea in my head that we were over?

“Took you long enough. Did you get lost?” she said as she got up from the porch swing.

“There was construction. You don’t need to jump down my throat,” I muttered as I watched Todd drive off. “I see you didn’t waste any time.”

I was baiting her for an argument but it didn’t work. Marcie said she was tired and needed to rest for her next shift at the hospital so I gave Angelia a hug and drove back toward home. I had to speed a little just to make it to work, my mind drifting to her inquiry about the scarecrow as I passed the cornfields. Maybe it was some prank. It was almost Halloween. Kids do crazy things. Or maybe she dreamed it up. Truth be told, I didn’t really give it a second thought. But then again, I haven’t been giving much of anything a second thought lately.

It’s crazy that even though Marcie is in the same town it now feels like we are worlds apart. But that’s what happens when something comes between you and your partner, I guess. Although I wasn’t sure I could even call Marcie that anymore.

That night, on my way home from my second job, she called in a fluster.

“What have you been letting Angelia watch on her tablet?”

“Hmm? What’s wrong?” I could tell her tone of voice was mostly irritation but there was an underlying level of worry there. Something was wrong.

“She woke up screaming and crying and said a bloody scarecrow was outside the house,” Marcie snapped. I felt a strange chill run down my spine.

“I’m sorry… I should have said something earlier. She said she saw it in the cornfields on her way to your house… Jesus Marcie… I didn’t even know it was a problem, just thought it was her weird imagination,” I admitted.

“Well you need to fix this, she won’t listen to me.”

I heard a soft rustling noise and a moment later my daughter’s whimper on the other end of the line.

“Hey baby. Can’t sleep huh? You had a bad dream?” I asked softly as I drove down the dark roads.

“No it wasn’t a dream… It was in the backyard. I saw it daddy and it was mad at me!” she said between sobs.

“Is it there now? Maybe it went away?” I asked, calmly trying to reason with her.

She paused, apparently thinking about it.

“What if it comes back?” she whispered.

“Well, I’m sure your mom will make sure it doesn’t… but even if it does… maybe the scarecrow is lonely? Maybe it just wants a friend?”

I was hoping that by making her supposed monster sound nice it would lessen the issue. But the plan seemed to backfire immediately as she cried. “But daddy it was covered in blood so much!!”

“Okay, okay calm down. Maybe it got hurt? Maybe it needs help? I’m sure it’s not going to hurt you baby. I’m sure everything will be fine. Your mom is there, and nothing can get to you,” I told her.

“You… you promise?” she asked.

“I promise. Now I want you to be a big girl and go to sleep okay?” I told her.

She promised she would and passed the phone back to her mom who did not offer a complimentary thank you.

I sighed, wishing that whatever dreams my daughter had that night were good and hung up the phone so I could focus on driving.

I was almost at the fields where she had claimed to see the scarecrow and I slowed down just a bit to see if I could spot anything amid the corn.

I felt a little silly doing it, trying to rationalize the hyper imagination of a six year old as I looked out toward one field and saw the familiar silhouette of a scarecrow.

Even from this angle I had to admit that it did look… strange. Rather tall and weirdly dressed even for a mannequin. Was there really blood on its clothes or were my eyes playing tricks with me?

At the same time I heard a loud noise and looked up just in the nick of time to see that I had let the car drift into oncoming traffic.

Immediately I jerked the wheel back to my lane, my heart going a million miles an hour as I pulled over and slammed on the brakes.

I sat there gripping my steering wheel for a second as I realized that I had come inches from meeting my maker just because I wanted to get a good look at a damned puppet in the middle of a field.

Recomposing myself, I let out a breath and drove home, convinced that I was just being an overprotective parent and my daughter was letting the separation get to her in her own weird way.

It would be great if I could end it right there and say that I was right about everything and we all lived happily ever after wouldn’t it?

The next day, I got a text with a picture attached. Angelia had drawn the scarecrow at school and her teacher, concerned, forwarded it to Marcie.

“Explain” the caption from my soon to be ex wife said as I stared at the picture. The childish drawing was black and red and dripping little bits of blood on the ground, a long stream of red crayon squiggling over to a cartoonish rendition of Angelia herself. She looked happy but behind her I saw what I guessed was two stick figures meant to be me and Marcie, both of us sad and lying sideways like we were under the ground.

I sighed and stopped by her after school dance class to get a better understanding. Apparently it was my fault this was happening, since I had put the idea in her head the scarecrow was friendly.

“What does the picture mean?” I asked her as she took a break.

“Oh you saw it? You were right daddy the scarecrow was lonely. But now we are connected,” she said.

“What do you mean sweetie?”

“I don’t know. I can just feel it,” she replied in a sing-song voice.

“Well I guess that’s good, but why are me and mommy sad in the picture?” I asked.

“Oh that’s mommy and Todd. Not you. Daddy you are silly you know you are taller than Todd,” she said with a giggle. I focused still on the fact that they were frowning and her answer gave me some clue about her state of mind.

“The scarecrow doesn’t like them, so I can’t be with them, that’s why they look sad,” she told me.

It was a childish explanation but I told myself it meant that she longed to be with me rather than Marcie.

That night I tried to reason with my wife about it, “You work so much and Angelia isn’t getting the attention she needs when she is here.”

Poor choice of words because that just fired her up.

“I can handle things just fine. You’re the problem here, David. You’re sticking these weird ideas into her head and making her scared of everything. I swear to god once I get a good lawyer, you will never get to see her again.”

That really hurt to here my wife lash out at me that way. I knew this was hard on her, and I knew I was an easy target and this time I didn’t let it go any further and left. Maybe she was right and this was my fault. I was the one that couldn’t keep our family together. Couldn’t make ends meet and couldn’t live up to the promises of our commitment. I wasn’t a good husband and definitely not a great father but damn it I was trying. Maybe too hard.

Maybe that was the problem? I didn’t know and I was too tired for another argument so I let it go that time.

The next morning, things escalated even further and I was woken from bed with repeated calls from Marcie.

“Jesus, this better be an emergency you know I worked late…” I muttered. “Please for the love of God David tell me this isn’t your idea of a sick joke,” she said.

I was awake immediately when I heard the distress and panic in her voice.

“What’s wrong? Has something happened?” I asked.

“That damned scarecrow Angelia has been harping about. It’s in the backyard.”

That tingling sensation of impending doom flooded me again.

“I’ll be right over.”

I hung up, grabbed some fresh clothes and drove to her house.

When I got there she was on the front porch smoking and I gave her an odd look.

“Don’t start with me. You better be glad I didn’t call the police on your ass. I want that thing dismantled and out of my yard this second!” she snapped.

“Wait a minute hold up, you aren’t making sense. First off it would be impossible for me to do anything like that. I was at work. And your backyard is locked, besides you’re not exactly a heavy sleeper,” I said as I followed her through the house to the glass sliding doors that connected to the fenced in yard.

I was hoping my logic would provide some sense of control to the situation, but when I looked out toward the grass and saw the thing, all of it felt meaningless.

The thing stood about eight feet tall, lopsided and made of decaying wood with tattered clothes that were clearly drenched in blood. I had no idea it would look so ghastly.

Immediately I pulled my cell phone out and Marcie asked, “What are you doing?”

“What do you think I’m doing? I’m calling the police. Someone is clearly playing a sick prank on us.”

“Shit. So it wasn’t you,” she said, her voice quivering.

“Dear god no, I may not like this any more than you but I’m not going to play mind games like this,” I said as I dialed. “Angelia didn’t see it did she?”

“No I got her on the school bus before I discovered it.”

“Thank goodness. She doesn’t need any more nightmares,” I said. I made a quick report and gave the dispatcher my wife’s address before turning to her with a fresh idea.

“Listen, this place is going to transform into a crime scene for a while. Maybe it would be a good idea for Angelia to stay at my place tonight?”

Marcie looked like she wanted to argue but seemed defeated and nodded in agreement.

I kept staring at the scarecrow, disturbed by its jagged body and wondering just who’s blood had been used to give it such a grisly appearance.

I went to work, trying to put the issue out of my mind and picked up Angelia around 2. She was thrilled to get out of school early and I treated her to ice cream.

It made everything seem right to see her smile even though I wasn’t sure what was happening.

That night, I tucked her in with a bedtime story and tried to not fret over the bizarre situation at Marcie’s.

As i was about to drift to sleep, Angelia screamed and I jolted to her bedside.

She was pointing at the window where the sliding panel had pushed up and the curtains fluttered in the wind. Had someone tried to break in? Was that what this whole thing was?

Instead as I approached the window I saw a dark silhouette in my own backyard.

The scarecrow had moved here.

As I stared at it I slowly closed the window and pulled the curtains close, my voice shaky as I reassured Angelia everything was fine. Once she had drifted to sleep I grabbed my gun from my safe and stepped out on my back porch, confronting the thing.

As it stood there only a few meters away, I could sense an otherworldly presence. I knew it’s arrival here tossed out any logical explanation for this. I was clearly dealing with an evil spirit of some kind.

Despite the fact that my mind came to this conclusion I still thought my gun would protect me and I raised it toward the scarecrow, demanding answers. “What do you want from us? You aren’t going to hurt my daughter, so you hear me?”

Of course the bloody thing didn’t respond and that only infuriated me more. I fired a warning shot, yelling at the apparition.

“I know you’re listening! You need to leave us alone!”

A moment later I heard a loud knock at my front door.

Cautiously I approached with the firearm and opened it, not sure what to expect.

seeing two dressed police officers there would have been my last guess.

“David Westin?” they asked, scanning me up and down and probably thinking I looked like a mad man.

“There’s been a homicide at your wife’s residence. We need to bring you in for questioning.”

My mouth was dry.

“What. That’s not possible. What happened?” I asked.

“Sir, put the gun down. We can answer questions at the station,” the first office said. She was reaching for her taser.

Immediately I dropped the firearm, begging for them to listen.

“I called the police hours ago to go investigate an issue at her house. Are you telling me… are you telling me my wife is dead??” I shouted.

Behind me I heard Angelia made a soft whimper from her room.

“Daddy… I had a bad dream. What’s going on?”

“Sir. Your daughter is going to remain in police custody while you come down to the station answer a few questions,” the second officer said.

It was clear the discussion was over for the moment and I kindly told Angelia to gather her things for a trip. I was staring out at the backyard, fully aware the scarecrow was now gone again.

It had come here to let us know it’s work was done, I thought as I drew the connection to Angelia’s drawing.

Once she was out of earshot I asked the officers, “Did you find two bodies?”

“Are you admitting that you are aware of something related to the case, Mister Westin?”

“Just tell me please. Was my wife alone or not?”

The officer saw something in my eyes to trust me.

“No. There were two bodies. Blood everywhere. They looked like they were pulled apart, limb by limb,” he admitted.

That ended the conversation until we arrived at the station where they fingerprinted me and got a blood sample. I was numb to all of it.

I didn’t want my wife dead, sure I hated the fact that we were going our separate ways. But this was beyond my resentment.

The scarecrow had caused this, why I didn’t know nor was I sure if it would now leave us alone.

I answered the officers questions as best as I could until they told me I was free to go.

When I did end the questioning I asked them if they found anything unusual in the backyard.

“Was there a scarecrow?” I asked. Their confused faces told me the answer was no.

On the way home, I apologized to Angelia for everything and sat her down on the edge of her bed to explain about Marcie.

Before I could get the words out, she said, “Mommy is gone you know. So is Todd.”

“You know?” I asked.

“I saw it in the scarecrow’s dreams. It was a horrible dream.”

“You woke up screaming… Angelia please, what else did the scarecrow show you.”

“Nothing really. Just a bunch of black birds over us every night. They have been following us. I think they will report to him.”

“Report what?”

“If you’re taking care of me or not,” she said simply.

Again that odd moment of unease fell over my body. “Because you’re connected and you felt mommy wasn’t being fair to you.”

“Yep. And now she’s gone. You were right daddy, the scarecrow does want to help me.”

The implications terrified me.

“Daddy can we stop for ice cream?” she asked sweetly. I was looking toward the fields. The silhouette of the bleeding scarecrow watching me every time my eyes cast that way. “Sure sweetie,” I said through gritted teeth. “Anything you want.”

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