you are here
The Scarecrow Counts to Twelve
horrorEveryone5 contributors · 4 paragraphs deep
Before Wren can light the match, the wind picks up and snuffs it out. Then the scarecrow's head turns with a slow creak. "Burn me and you take my place," it says. "Someone must point. Someone must count. Choose which one you'll be." Wren freezes, match held in the air.
Wren drops the match and the gas can in the dirt. "I won't burn you, and I won't count," Wren says. "The deal ends here." The scarecrow stares for a long moment, then sags on its pole, the fight gone out of it. The crows sing again. One by one, lights come on in the eleven empty houses. Nobody else gets pointed at, ever.
↔ version 1 of 2 of this paragraph — hover its sides to flip. The card below is what happens next.
What happens next?
0 ways forwardVote share across the top 0 branches
No futures yet — be the one who decides what happens next.