"What the hell is that?" Jess hissed, panic in her whispers.

"That doesn't look like a what. That looks like a who!" Matt answered.

"We should get out of here." Katie said, much to the agreement of everyone else. Except Kyle.

He stood still, staring at the dark figure that stood just about a hundred paces in front of them. It had its back to them with its arms stretched out to its sides, like a performer on stage, soaking in the adulation of their audience. But the spectators here weren't in awe. Instead, they looked at the human shaped form with nothing but disbelief and terror.

"Come on Kyle!" Jess begged, dragging on his arm as the others tried to leave as well.

"Wait." He answered, shaking himself free from Jess' grasp.

"What are you doing?" She whispered.

"I can't leave without finding out the truth." He told them.

"We can come back in the morning when it's lighter and whoever that is, is gone!" Matt argued.

"The same as before still applies!" Kyle hissed back. "We can't go to sleep knowing this is here!"

No one spoke, knowing once again that Kyle was right. Either that or they were simply frozen with fear.

"Well what are we going to do?" Asked Katie. "This guy hasn't even moved since we got here." She spoke loudly enough for them to hear her but not enough to alert the figure that it was being watched.

Kyle looked around the darkened clearing, and although it was black and his vision was nowhere near its best right now, he was quite sure that there was no one else around waiting to ambush them.

"Stay here." He told them, holding his arm back to make his point. Without even realising it, Jess held onto his outstretched hand for a couple of seconds.

He edged forward on the grassy terrain, for once grateful that this path had been largely untouched as it would muffle the sound of his footsteps. Although he didn't turn round to see for himself, he sensed that the others were following him, giving him the strength that he needed to carry on. As he finally stepped out of the relative safety of the trees, he finally summoned the courage to call out to the mystery being.

"Hello?"

The figure didn't even flinch.

"Who are you?" He called again, receiving the same silent response. He looked back at the others who nodded for him to continue.

"Are you lost?" He asked, almost hoping for the answer to be yes. He'd prefer that it was someone that was lost rather than someone who wanted to kill him.

But once again the person never moved.

"Hey, I'm trying to help you!" Kyle yelled, angrily this time. He marched up to the hooded figure and grabbed its shoulder to turn it round and force them to face him.

But it didn't move.

"What the hell?"

Kyle tried and failed once more so instead went round to the other side and gasped at the face before him.

"What's wrong?" Jess asked worriedly before she and the others joined Kyle to look at who they'd found.

"Is that a –" Katie began, her voice flat.

"A scarecrow," Kyle sighed. He pulled the hood back to reveal a big bundle of straw instead of a fleshy face.

Now that they were inches away from it, it was quite clear to see that the scarecrow had been nailed to a cross as if it was a religious icon. It was dressed in human clothing, making them feel a little better about being scared of it, but its eyes were still nothing but deep, dark holes.

"We are definitely not in Kansas anymore." Katie shrugged.

"What the hell is this thing doing out here?" Jess asked. "If this path was totally blocked then why would anyone need this? Why would they need it anyway?"

"Maybe it's been here for decades? From before the path became overgrown?" Matt suggested.

"Yeah sure, and that's why it's wearing a hoody and jeans!" Katie condescended.

"Look at all this," Kyle told them, interrupting whatever Matt's retort was going to be. He pointed down at the foot of the wooden crucifix. "Flowers."

Just as he'd said, there were various sets of bouquets laid down as if it was a fresh grave. The colour varied from pale whites to light blues and yellows.

"You don't think . . ." Jess trailed off, thinking just that.

"Look, the path continues," Kyle said, this time pointing into the distance. Although he wanted to stay to try and keep Jess positive, he couldn't help bouncing all over the place. "Should we keep going?"

"I think we should head up to the waterfall," Jess replied. "We can check this out tomorrow. But right now, this place is scaring the shit outta me."

"Jess' right," Matt agreed. "If we keep going now, we could get lost. And since I'm the one that's going to have to set the tents up, I'd rather do it somewhere where I know my surroundings."

"I agree," Added Katie. "I don't particularly want to be here when the lion, the tin man and the wicked witch come back for this dude." She said, pointing at the scarecrow.

"Scared to follow the yellow brick road?" Kyle teased.

"I'm not scared, I'm smart," She snapped. "We're going up to set up camp but if you feel like the big strong jock that you are then you can just go on ahead."

Katie led the others away, although Jess hesitated, hoping Kyle would join them. After a quick glance at the ever menacing forest, Kyle nodded his agreement and followed behind them.

*

The group retreated, carefully retracing their steps before changing route at the beginning of the new path and heading up towards the waterfall at the top of the hill. Their pace was notably much quicker than it had been at any other time on their trip. Unlike the bottom of the hill where there was no other sounds, up nearer the top the invisible sounds of the dark forest seemed to bring the area to life.

Finally, they made it to the top but unlike the night before, there was no photo's being taken on their phones. Instead, Kyle and Jess checked the area to make sure there wasn't anyone else around, while Matt set up the tents and Katie used her supplies to light another fire.

Although they were happy with Kyle and Jess' conclusions, they knew that they wouldn't be closing up their tents any time soon. What they had found had rocked them all, and the fact that they were all silently staring into the flickering flame before them said it all. the only other thing that ever took their attention away from the fire were the constant fluttering of birds or blowing of branches, coming together. While they'd had no trouble finding sleep the night before, they all knew that it would elude them all on this night.

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Scary or not scary? 

In every good horror movie there's always a few (what I like to call) non-scares. Where the build up has you expecting  to be scared  out of your wits only for it to tease you by having you wait a little longer. That's what I'm doing here. Still a little weird though right?

The Scarecrow was actually something that I always wanted to place somewhere in the story. It's a little ode to my all time favourite Batman villain, Scarecrow. He got shafted in Arkham Knight by the way. Do you guys have any favourite villains from comic, film or TV?  Or have you ever done a little dedication to anything in your own stories? I wanna know!

At the beginning of the chapter is another piece of music, Slip to the Void by Alter Bridge. Of all the live music I've seen, the 6 times I've seen them are the most of any band, and this song was a huge influence on my thinking for the story. Especially this scene. The lines "You should never have come this way, to test the hands of fate", gives me goosebumps when thinking about being in a dark creepy forest!