Gerard, Mikey, Ray, and Frank decide to go on a road trip to Galveston, but run out of gas, and on both sides of the road is thick cornfield. They see a big house in the distance, and decide to go for help. The knock on the door, no answer. They hesitantly go inside to realize it’s empty. It’s dark, no lights. All of a sudden they hear Frank scream, and Gerard get knocked out. When he awakes, a little girl is helping him, but she advises him to stay quiet because “The scarecrow will hear you”. The members are dispersed into separate rooms of the house, and if Gerard can get them all in time, they will survive, if not they will die one by one. The little girl is brunette, hair tyed into a bow, with a long night gown on. She begs him to take her with him, as she knows the house very well. He agrees. They find Ray first, he’s in the basement, tied up, shaking, bloody. Then they find Frank in a room sewing forcefully. They realize they only have 10 minutes to loose themselves in the cornfield so the scarecrow won’t be able to find them. They don’t have time to save Mikey. They get far enough into the cornfield, and decide to sleep there for the night because escaping to the car would be too vulnerable. Gerard wakes up early, 7 am, bright. He sees that his friends have been dismembered, he panics. Right as he gets up he finds himself a couple feet away from the Scarecrow. The scarecrow smiles, and lifts up a knife. He then realizes the little girl is holding his hand tightly, her face dirty, earlier that night she told him how to defeat the scarecrow, and as he tries to, the scarecrow quickly severs his head. The little girl is in shock, and disappears into the air.

It was a Wednesday night, and Gerard and the rest of MCR were on their way to Galveston in Frank’s roomy SUV. They all had no worries, because nothing bad ever happened on a Wednesday. Obviously. All of the windows were down and the wind was blowing through their hair. It was sunset, around maybe 5:30. They had just entered Texas, and were in the middle of freaking nowhere.
They’d continued driving for 2 more hours and were STILL in the middle of nowhere. Stupid Texas, Gerard thought. They were all hungry, and needed to pee. Bad. Plus they needed somewhere to crash.
“I gotta go now!” Frank whined, holding his crotch and jumping in his seat.
“Yeah Toro, pull over.” Mikey said, slightly bouncing. Toro sighed, and pulled over.
“We’re losing time.” He complained. Toro was a control freak, and they had a schedule, but Gerard didn’t care, he had to piss. When the car was stopped Gerard noticed that for miles ahead, there was nothing except cornfields. They all rushed out and found places to pee.
“Hey, look.” Gerard said, pointing to a house in the distance. “It doesn’t look like anyone lives there, I don’t see a car or anything, or any lights on. Maybe we could crash there.” He suggested, they’d been up since 4 AM, and were running on fumes. Ray took a look, zipping his pants.
“Yeah, ok.” He agreed.
“It doesn’t look that creepy.” Mikey said. “And It’s only one night.” He reasoned.
“I can’t see anything.” Frank complained.
*
After an hour, they had finally made their way through the huge cornfield, and were at the house door. The place looked like it would crumble at any minute. “Should we knock, just in case?” Frank asked, looking terrified. He hated the unknown, and this place just felt… sinister. It was terrifying. Gerard nodded, and brought his shaking fist up to the door. He knocked three times, and waited. After ten seconds he knocked again. No answer, no sound other than their irregular breathing.
“Gee, I don’t think this was such a good idea.” Mikey whispered.
“I know Mikes. But we’ve come this far already, no reason not to go through with it.” He said, grabbing the door handle, and twisting it. It opened easily. Gerard pushed it open and saw the vague outlines of a bare house. No furniture, no pictures, no nothing. “See guys, It’s empty.” He said walking into the house. He couldn’t explain why he was so afraid, something was just off. As they walked in, they couldn’t see anything except outlines. It was too dark. All of their hearts beat loudly, as if one another could hear it.
“It’s not that bad, we co-“ Frank’s words were cut off with a thud as he hit the ground.
“Frank, wh-“ Gerard started to say, but before he could finish he felt something hard and heavy hit his head. He blacked out.
*
When he woke up he didn’t know where he was, or where his friends were for that matter. All he knew was that he was alone. He could feel it. He realized he was wrong when he felt something stroking his hair. He started to scream, but a tiny hand covered his mouth.
“Shhh.” The little girl soothed. “I’m gonna help you, I promise. But you can’t talk, ok? Because if you do, the scarecrow will hear you.” She warned. She slowly let go of his mouth. “Now,” She whispered. The scarecrow likes to play games, and he plays this one a lot. I think it’s his favorite. You and whoever you came here with are all in different parts of the house. You have 45 minutes to find as many people as you can, but at the end of the 45 minute mark, he’ll hunt you down unless you’re far away by then. Do you understand?” She asked. Her voice was clear. He took time to really look at her. Her auburn air was tied high with a pink bow, and she wore a pale pink night gown. Her face though, was scary. She had no eyes, and her cheeks were carved into, making a dramatic faux-smile. She looked young, maybe 7. Gerard nodded. “Good. This is what happened to me.” She explained. “I wasn’t saved in time, my mommy didn’t know how to play. Now, the 45 minutes starts when you open the door. I know every inch of this house. But we have to do this strategically.” She said. “There are 3 popular spots he likes to put people, we’ll check those first. Then we’ll check the other 7. Are you ready?” She asked. He stood up to test his legs, they were fine, but his head pounded like hell. He nodded. She gestured for him to hold her hand. “Ok then, let’s go.”
Gerard stepped forward, and grabbed the door handle, shaking. “It’s ok.” She said. “Think of it this way: You have a guaranteed 45 minutes of safety, unless one of you talk.” She said, “Then it’s game over.” He nodded feeling a little better. He opened the door, and followed her lead. She walked fast, not running, and went down the stairs to the ground floor. Then she opened a second door, and went through that one too and down another flight of stairs into the basement. She clicked on the light, and pointed to a shaking figure that was tied to a pole. Ray.
Faster than he thought possible, he sat in front of Ray, and untied his feet and hands, but kept the duct tape around his mouth. Ray looked in confusion, and Gerard signaled his to stay silent. Ray nodded, and took the tape from his mouth. It didn’t appear as though he could see the little girl. It didn’t matter. Gerard grabbed Ray’s hand, and they made their way back up the stairs. It took 20 minutes to find the next person, Frank. He was in a room, foot secured to the motor of a sewing machine, and his hand where the fabric should’ve been. There was blood everywhere, and Frank’s poor fingers looked broken beyond repair. Once Frank was untied, and his fingers were recused from the needle, Gerard once again explained to Frank that it was important to be silent. The little girl tugged on his hand. “You only have ten minutes! Get out of here!” She said urgently. Gerard froze. That would mean leaving Mikey. His only family left. “Come on, let’s go!” She yelled, yanking him towards the door. Frank got his attention, and Gerard knew what he was going to ask. The tears in his eyes made it hard to stay quiet, but he did. He shook his head no, and pointed to the door.
They wasted no time running through the door and out into the field. He had no idea where the car was, but he knew they needed to find it. Fast. As they ran, they shoved massive amounts of corn out of their way. Then Gerard’s heart leaped with happiness, he saw the road.
He turned around to signal what he saw, but he was alone. The only one with him was the little girl. “They fell behind… I tried to tell you…” She said. His heart dropped. “And you’re out of time.” She whispered in defeat, falling to the ground and crying. He was as good as dead. He couldn’t wrap his head around it. He was only 18. There was so much he hadn’t experienced yet. Things that none of them had… Going to the house had been Gerard’s stupid idea. He sank to the ground and wrapped the girl in his arms, trying to comfort her while wallowing in his self-hatred.
After a few minutes, she froze. “He’s here.” She whispered. “He’s watching you.” Gerard froze with fear. He wished the scarecrow would just get it over with, already.
“Good.” He whispered back. “Listen, little one, It’s time for you to go, ok.”
“I tried to help you so hard…” She cried, then laughed a little. “He thinks you’re crazy. He can’t see me.” Gerard laughed and then stood up. “Behind you.”
He turned around to face the scarecrow. Gerard was glad he was about to die; the scarecrow’s face would have given him nightmares for the rest of his life. The body was made from straw, no flesh, no bones, just straw. The straw was covered in typical farmer’s clothes, but they were absolutely soaked in blood. Probably his friends… or his brothers…
Then was his face. It was a mask, made from burlap. It was amateurly sewed together, with holes cut for the eyes. There was also a smile cut out from the mask, and in that hole, Gerard could see nothing, just darkness. It was like nothing was under it at all, just air. Then bright light came from the mask, and the scarecrow started to stagger toward Gerard, the smile being the most evil thing he had ever seen. Gerard was too scared to move, even if he had changed his mind, which he didn’t. He deserved this. He deserved it for putting his friends through this hell. For putting his brother through it.
The light was blinding, and Gerard couldn’t see a thing. All of a sudden he felt the hands, he assumed, brush against his face. Almost in an affectionate way. Gerard cursed to himself over and over again. Do your worst, Scarecrow, he thought. And it did.
All through the rest of the night, Gerard screamed more than he had in his entire life. He didn’t know what was happening to him, but it was more painful than anything he’d ever felt. When the sun came up, the scarecrow left. Somehow he wasn’t dead. But he knew he would be soon enough. He heard the sad sound of a child sniffling, and turned his head toward the sound. There was the girl, sitting with her head to her knees, shaking as though she was crying. As much as he wanted to comfort her, he couldn’t speak or move. She looked at him one last time.
“I’m sorry.” She said, then vanished into the air. Gerard was dead within the hour.