After turning in their garbage bags to Hank, they found Siobhan and Noah sitting at the fountain. The two didn’t notice them as they approached, instead preoccupied with something in the water.

  “How’d the hayride go?” Jesse asked.

  Siobhan held up a plastic bag filled with black hair. “Tada! Easy-peasy.”

  “You had an asthma attack,” Noah reminded her.

  “What?!”

  She waved off his concern. “It wasn’t that bad.”

  “What exactly happened?” Alicia asked.

  “When we arrived, we were the only ones there,” he explained. “So we got a wagon all to ourselves. We waited until about halfway through the ride to steal some hair so nobody could see us. But something spooked the horses.”

  “It was probably me, when I plucked the hair,” Siobhan said. “And you saw how their manes are all fiery? Well it turns out, when they get scared, they make smoke. Like a lot of smoke.”

  So that’s what triggered her asthma.

  “But fortunately,” Siobhan continued. “Noah here is a horse whisperer, so he was able to calm them down.”

  “I’m not a horse whisperer. I just used to spend a lot of time around barn animals.”

  Jesse figured there was a story there, one that they unfortunately didn’t have time to get into. For now, he just filed the information away as he told them, “Well, I’m glad you’re okay. Both of you.”

  “How about you guys? Finally get the eye of newt?”

  Alicia showed them the bottle that Hank had given her full of slimy green eyes before handing it to Jesse for safe keeping. “Two down, three to go.”

  “What were you guys looking at anyway?”

  “The coins in the fountain. Check this out.” She fished out a handful of coins from the bottom of the pool.

  Jesse frowned. “Hey, that’s not-”

  “We weren’t stealing! Just look.” She thrust her hand out to him.

  Sitting in her palm, among regular quarters and pennies were several strange looking coins. Some were foreign, some had odd shapes, and some were even stamped with dates going back to the seventeen hundreds.

  “That is interesting,” Alicia said, looking over his shoulder to see the coins too.

  “It’s just like we learned at Mr. Pennyshire’s house. But I think some of these are even older than the eighteenth century.”

  “Maybe some of the residents are older than Gravewood,” Noah muttered. Jesse followed his gaze to a group of vampires that were skulking about nearby.

  “We can ask Bella later,” he said, suddenly anxious to get moving. “For now, let’s get the next ingredient on the list.” He pulled out the crumpled paper from his pocket. “She left a note here that says we can get bone meal from the corn maze near the pumpkin patch.”

  “The one with the weird looking corn?” Alicia perked up. “Me and Ashton went through it earlier. Come on, let’s go!”

  She led the way down the street and towards the farm that Jesse saw before at the pumpkin patch. The noise of the party grew quieter as they walked, the trail of lanterns along the path the only indication that there was anything out this way.

  When Jesse saw the maze ahead of them, he realized what Alicia had meant. The cobs of corn that lined the stalks had strange multicolored kernels in shades ranging from vibrant red to deep purple. Bella said that she had helped prepare for the party, did she make the corn rainbow colored on purpose?

  At the entrance of the maze was a stall run by a lone attendant dressed like a farmer. Or maybe they actually were a farmer. It was hard to tell when all of the real monsters were dressed up in costumes, sometimes as other monsters. Their skin was a shade of pale green and Jesse could see leaves poking out from the tops of their work gloves. They smiled as the group approached.

  “Uh, hi,” Jesse said. “Group of four.”

  They nodded and pointed to a sign stuck in the dirt that he hadn’t notice before.

  WARNING: After sundown, the stalker scarecrows enter the maze. An extra challenge for only the bravest souls!

  “This was not here earlier,” Alicia said.

  “What does this mean?” Siobhan asked the attendant.

  They quickly wrote out on a small chalkboard they had: Enchanted scarecrows wander the maze. If you get caught by one, you lose and get sent back to the entrance.

  “Oh that’s…” Alicia struggled to find the word. “Fun.”

  “This just got a whole lot harder.”

  “It’ll be fine,” Noah said. “Just don’t get caught.”

  The attendant jotted something else down on their board before flipping it over for them. Good luck! :)

  Without any other choice, they entered the maze, Alicia taking the lead.

  “First we go right,” she said as they walked. “Then left. And then… left again.”

  “Do you actually remember the way to go?” Noah asked.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Of course I remember,” she snapped. “It was a while ago, okay?”

  As the two continued to bicker, Jesse wrapped his arms around himself and tried not to shiver. His discomfort had nothing to do with the chilly autumn air. The maze was eerie in a way he couldn’t put into words, though maybe it was just the fact that he was currently in the midst of an entire neighborhood full of monsters. It was probably just his imagination, but the maze felt wrong somehow; the stalks too tall, the path too narrow, not to mention the multicolored corn, which should have been goofy and out of place but only served to make the maze feel even more unnatural.

  There was also the quietness. So far away from the rest of the community, Jesse could almost forget that this maze was part of a bustling Halloween party. He strained his ears to see if he could hear anything from Moonset, music or yelling or anything, but instead heard something else.

  Something behind them.

  “Guys, this way,” he whispered urgently, ushering everyone around a corner. No sooner than he did, a scarecrow came stomping down the path they were just on.

  It didn’t look like any scarecrow Jesse had ever seen; it was like someone went out of their way to make them as terrifying as possible. Gnarled sticks replaced its hands and the potato sack that covered its head had its mouth split in a permanent grin. Around its neck hung an amulet just like the one Bella had given Siobhan, red gem glowing to match its eyes that stared straight ahead as it walked past them.

  Jesse let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as he watched it disappear down the path. “Okay, I think it’s gone.”

  “Uh, Jesse?” Siobhan squeaked.

  He turned around to see everyone else frozen as another scarecrow stared them down.

  For a heart pounding moment, nobody moved. Strangely, not even the scarecrow. They just stood like that, staring at each other. Its gaze seemed fixed on Siobhan, who was only a few feet away from it.

  Alicia was the first one brave enough to speak. “What do we do?”

  No one had an answer for her. Fear turned to confusion as the scarecrow remained stationary. Shouldn’t it try to get them or something?

  Siobhan took an experimental step forward. As soon as she did, the scarecrow turned around and walked away.

  “What just happened?” Noah asked when the coast was clear.

  “I’m as lost as you are,” she said.

  “Is it possible they think you’re one of them?” Jesse said. “Maybe because of your amulet.”

  “Or maybe you’re just that good at makeup,” Alicia said. She sounded impressed.

  “If they think she’s a scarecrow, then we have nothing to worry about,” Noah said.

  “I wouldn’t say nothing…” If anything, the encounter only added to Jesse’s earlier unease.

  Siobhan seemed confident, however. “Okay, we’ll keep going, and if we run into any more stalker scarecrows, just hide behind me.”

  It wasn’t long before they had to put their theory to the test. As they were walking down the path, a stalker rounded the corner right in front of them. They all scrambled to hide single file behind Siobhan, Noah rather awkwardly given his height.

  Thankfully, they were proven correct, as the scarecrow only cast the briefest of glances their way before heading in the other direction. Jesse guessed they were enchanted to spread out as much as possible.

  They made their way like that; Siobhan leading the group while Alicia gave her directions. With the threat of the scarecrows gone, they made quick progress. Soon enough they came upon the heart of the maze.

  Jesse wasn’t entirely sure what he expected, but a pumpkin sitting on a pedestal with a sign that says, “You did it!” was not it.

  “That’s kind of underwhelming.” Siobhan’s voice was laced with disappointment.

  Alicia leaned in to read the small print on the sign. “‘When you’re ready to leave the maze, place your hand on the pumpkin and say, ‘Trick-or-treat’ and you’ll be teleported back to the entrance.’ This also wasn’t here before.”

  “Probably added with the scarecrow stalkers,” Jesse guessed. “So people wouldn’t have to go back through the maze again.”

  “Coward’s way out,” Noah said.

  “There’s the bonemeal.” Siobhan pointed to a bag left tucked between the stalks of corn. The label read: Organic Bone Meal. Instant results, guaranteed! She tried to pick it up, but only succeeded in lifting it a few inches off the ground before dropping it with a gasp. “It’s heavy.”

  “I’ve got it.” With one hand Noah lifted the bag and hucked it over his shoulder.

  “Show off.”

  “Weakling,” he shot back.

  Jesse cut them off before it could escalate any further. “Now we just take the pumpkin back and hope the maze attendant doesn’t question us stealing their fertilizer.”

  “Uh guys?” Alicia said, her voice small.

  Maybe it was because it was the second time something like this had happened within the last hour, but he already knew what was waiting for them before he even turned around to look.

  A stalker scarecrow was blocking the entrance to the center of the maze, but this one was different from the others they had seen. It stared at them with cold blue eyes, and Jesse couldn't help but shiver at the sight of the wicked looking scythe it clutched in its hand.

  Noah nudged Siobhan. “Do something,” he hissed.

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know, you’re one of them, try talking to it.”

  She took a small step forward, hands raised in a gesture of peace. “Uh, how do you do, fellow scarecrow? Don’t mind us, just grabbing this bone meal and then we’ll be on our merry way.”

  In one fluid motion, it swung the scythe, cleaving the pumpkin on the pedestal in two, the top half flying off to land in the corn somewhere.

  “Okay, that didn’t work. Someone else want to try?”

  The scarecrow took a step forward and Jesse instinctively took a step back. It stood in between them and the exit, cornering them. There was nowhere to run and it was getting closer. All that was behind them was a wall of corn.

  Wait, corn…

  “Guys, run!” Jesse yelled, before turning around and running straight into the wall of the maze, shoving stalks of corn out of his way.

  On his left and right, he could hear his friends crashing through the maze beside him, and from behind, the woosh of the scythe slicing the air.

  They burst through the corn briefly onto the maze path before plunging back into the corn again, forging their own way through the labyrinth.

  He cast a glance over his shoulder to see if the scarecrow was gaining on them. Big mistake. Almost as soon as he took his eyes off the ground in front of him, he was tripping, landing hard on his side. He thought he heard something crack, but no time to wonder what it was; the scarecrow was bearing down on him.

  “Jesse!” Siobhan was there, yanking him to his feet by the arm. He scrambled to get up and running again.

  A second later, there was a thud as the scythe embedded into the ground where he once was.

  He didn’t try to look back after that, he just kept running, eyes trained solely on Noah’s giant frame a few feet in front of him.

  Soon enough, they were crashing through a final line of corn into the open air of Gravewood.

  “Woah, kids, what’s going on here?” Hank was there, catching Alicia by the shoulders as she tried to rush past him, a look of concern on his face.

  “Scarecrows, attacking us!” she managed to get out in between breaths.

  “The enchanted scarecrows?”

  “Nothing enchanting about them,” Noah gasped out. Jesse was relieved to see that he still had the bag of fertilizer slung over his shoulder.

  Hank frowned, looking past them into the maze, through the holes they just created in their frantic escape. Any second, Jesse expected the stalker scarecrow to come charging after them. But it never came. It was like it vanished into thin air.

  “Seriously, you kids alright?”

  Jesse shook his head in disbelief. “We’re telling you, one of the scarecrows was trying to kill us! It had a scythe and blue eyes and- “

  “Blue?” Hank held out his hands in a calming manner. “Okay, slow down, I can barely understand you. Heck, I can’t understand why a scarecrow would attack one of their own.”

  One of their own? Shoot…

  Siobhan caught on quick. “Sorry, Mr. Harwood, we must have been mistaken. Got a little too into the game and thought the stalkers were actually trying to get us. We’ve just had a lot on our plate, running around tonight.”

  “Don’t I know it. I myself was just doing a perimeter check around the maze when I saw you lot running out of there like bat outta hell. But what were you doing in there anyway?”

  Jesse pointed to the bag Noah was carrying. “Bella asked us to bring that bone meal to her, and now that we’ve got it, we better head back.”

  Hank looked reluctant to drop their conversation but let them go anyway. “Alright. You kids be careful now.”

  As they headed back to Bloodhill Boulevard, Jesse muttered, “Don’t have much choice.”