Page 13 of Snatched By the Scarecrow

I slow my steps but continue moving forward, listening to their conversation.

“I know, but that doesn’t stop me from wishing there was another way,” a woman who sounds like Ava says. “It’s easier when I find them annoying.”

A mixture of voices laugh before another woman says. “That guy last year was so obnoxious. He wouldn’t stop talking about his crypto currency.”

“It’s not like we had to deal with him for long,” the male voice from before says. “We never have to.”

The group standing around the bonfire comes into view: Mike, Olive, Ava, and three men, plus four other women. I debate stopping to listen further, to try and understand what they’re talking about, but a twig snaps under my foot, and I freeze in my tracks. Every head turns in my direction, and my breath seizes in my chest.

My skin crawls, and my gut tells me to turn back and run home, but I force my feet to stay planted. I shouldn’t be having such a wild reaction to them. They’re just people; people who live here, people who are my neighbors. It’s stupid that I’d want to run from them, but not from a potential murderous scarecrow. My body is seriously screwed up today.

“Harper!” Ava yells.

She rushes over to me, giving me a hug. Nothing about the hug feels warm like yesterday, instead it feels almost forced.“I’m so glad you found us alright!” She pulls back and takes me in. “You look good enough to eat in this costume!”

I’m about to say that is a weird thing to say to someone you don’t know very well—or at all for that matter—when she points to the wolf ears, and black nose and whiskers painted on her face.

“You like? I have a thing for the Big Bad Wolf,” she wiggles her eyebrows.

I force a smile on my face. “Looks good.”

“Come on, I’ll introduce to you everyone!”

Making myself breathe, and act normal, I follow her toward the bonfire.

“You know Mike and Olive,” she says.

The couple is dressed as what I can only guess are a nurse and doctor by Mike’s scrubs and Olive’s short white dress with a red cross on it.

“Hi,” I nod.

“Hey!” Olive replies. “Sorry again about yesterday. I swear we’re cooler than that.”

I wave her off because I really don’t want to get into it right now. “We can start over.”

She nods, “I’d like that.”

“Me too,” Mike adds.

Thankfully, after that she leads me to the others. Each introduction feels like meeting your coworkers rather than friends. They are friendly enough, but I swear I feel at least one or more of them staring at me while I’m being introduced to another one. Every time I look to see if they are, nobody is.

Once I’ve met all of them, Ava offers me a lawn chair by the fire between her and her friend Jeremy, who reminds me of a beanstalk and is dressed like a pirate. Super tall, thin, and wears glasses too big for his head. He seems okay, better than Mike, but he hasn’t said much to me yet.

“Would you like a hard cider?” Ava asks.

“Um—”

“Come on!” She urges. “At least have one! It will warm you up and relax you a bit. Plus, my little microbrewery makes them.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “You have a microbrewery?”

“Yep! I have to do something with my time!”

“They’re really good,” Jeremy adds.

I look around the fire, seeing everyone now seated or standing around the flames, waiting for me to give my answer.

Feeling hot, I remove my sweater and agree. “Just one.”