Knots starts chuckling on the other side of me. “Corn,” he answers. “Watch out for the leaves. They can be as sharp as knives,” he says, moving easily ahead of me. His wings arenowhere to be seen, which makes sense if he knows what this crap is. He’s obviously dealt with this opponent before.
“Huh. Well, I’m glad I made my outfit thick. It didn’t seem to cut through it,” Levi observes, giving us a nod before indicating we can continue.
“Great, something else to deal with,” I grumble under my breath and turn my body to slowly proceed through the leaves crossing my path. I cook with ingredients, but I’ve never considered their origins.Corn; who knew that it could be this lethal?
We continue on for a few minutes until our path leads us through dead and dry crops, opening into a real-life Halloween scene.
“Did we really walk into Anoka?” I ask, looking around.
“What’s an Anoka?” Levi asks, pulling up short and narrowing his eyes at the tall and imposing figure in front of us.
“Anoka, Minnesota, Levi. It’s one of the top Halloween Towns on Earth. That’s what we’re looking at: a Halloween scene. I think that’s a scarecrow, and those are decorated pumpkins.” I point to the ten-foot creature dressed in all black that stands out in the fog. Its white face blends in with the atmosphere, and the way its smile is painted makes it look like its lips were sewn shut, yet it’s smiling despite the wire. Not even a mother would love that psychotic smile. The weather-worn hat and cowl around its head only add an extra creepy layer to the whole scene.
“I thought scarecrows were supposed to have hands and legs,” Knots tells us as he takes in the scene. He’s right though, we couldn’t see this guy’s arms or legs. Hopefully they are hidden by the fog. I’m not about to go poking to find them, but it is odd that we can see his face and torso but not anything else.
“Yeah, they are supposed to look human. That’s the whole point, to scare off the birds and stuff from the crops,” I reply.
“Yeah, but what crops would Rage be harvesting,” Levi deadpans.
Oh shit. I forgot. We’re in the third level of Hell.
I swallow hard around the lump in my throat and scan the scene in front of me again.
“Hey, were all those pumpkins facing us before?” I ask, noticing that more than a dozen pumpkins’ faces with gruesome eyes, teeth, and decorated blood are now facing us. At least, I hope that’s fake blood.
“Nope,” Levi says, conjuring up his bo staff.
“JP, which way is Moni?” Knots urges, getting us back on track.
Oh yeah, find Moni and the rest of the group. I take a moment to take a deep breath and place my hand over my forearm. “To your right, Knots,” I tell him, taking a step his way. “Let’s get out of here before anything else gets too crazy.”
“Famous last words,” Levi says, and the contents in my stomach drop.
I scan the scarecrow again and narrow my eyes slightly. Did it move? No, that’s impossible. Shaking my head, I turn and focus my thoughts back on Moni before continuing on through the maze. We move swiftly through until we come to another clearing and another scarecrow surrounded by bales of hay.
“We have to go through that,” I tell the others as I stop at the edge of the clearing.
“Well, that’s a little unnerving,” Levi says as he catches up, pointing out the massive black and dark blue birds gathered around with only skulls as heads.
Their dark eye sockets gleam red as they zero in on our location, bringing their dark gray skulls into profile and showcasing a row of three-inch spikes on the back of their skulls that are spattered with blood and ribbons of skin from their victims still adorned to their heads.
“Coraravens. Of course there’s Coraravens here,” Knots groans.
“How bad are they?” I ask, swallowing hard.
“Extremely intelligent and work as a team,” he tells us.
“So, do we need to fight our way through?” Levi asks, glancing down at his watch. “We’ve already spent a good chunk of time getting this far, and we only have two hours left.”
“We might be lucky, given the fresh blood on the hay. They might be full,” Knots points out. And sure enough, looking down at the closest bale of hay, there’s a fresh leg dismembered from a body. It could be anyone’s guess where the rest is, but I don’t think I want to know.How did I not smell that at least?
“Okay. Let’s go,” I say, but it’s Knots who extends his hand.
“I’ll take lead if you don’t mind,” he says, allowing his wings to unfurl and extend out. The birds slightly ruffle their feathers in irrigation but don’t move against us as we move. However, as we get closer to the other side, I can finally see the scarecrow better.
This one is about eight feet tall and actually has limbs. It’s wearing dark brown clothing with straw hanging out of its cuffs, but instead of a leather face with a creepy smile, it has a carved pumpkin and a face that glows. His hands and feet are visible against the thick fog, but for some reason, that doesn’t give me warm feelings at all. Instead, the stalks of corn that are in its hands make me pause, wondering why he would be holding them instead.
“You coming?” Levi asked.
