Dark Terrors and Desperation in Diapers (private)

[Rye]

"come on , I wanna play hide and seek!" he said , full of energy as bounded to the edge of the tall stalks of corn. There were a few scarecrows around , crucified up on their posts and scattered around the area. "Okay , you stay here and could to 10 , I'm gonna go hide" he giggled , acting his age again , rare for him to be childish at all really. He left her standing at the entrance to the field and darted off into the densely packed field , disappearing into the green. His movements grew quieter as he moved further away and then stopped , either he was too far out or had decided on a good spot to hide.

[R682]

Hayley stood there nervously on the boundary of the corn and shuffled her feet in the dry dust, surprised at the sudden enthusiasm of her brother. Grateful, too, however; for her, as well, it was good to be able to submerge herself in the relief of familiar play and fraternal roles. Nevertheless, she couldn't help from shooting uncertain glances at the scarecrows as she counted down, wondering how Luke could bear to hide, of all things, so close to them.

Still, they either had to dismiss these silly fears or be ruled by them. What else was there to do, really, except challenge them head on? What did she think was going to happen; they were going to be the first young people in the history of real life to be attacked by scarecrows? No. It was just a stupid notion.

"...five, four, three, two, one..." she finished quickly, wanting to get on with it and get into it. Plus, it was going to be hard enough to find Luke as it was, without giving him too much time. Committing herself, with a sigh of suppressed dread, Hayley came to life and pushed her way in amongst the corn, looking left and right along the rows. The ground felt hard and gritty, and flecked everywhere with harsh fragments, making it hard to believe anything could grow here. It was amazing the corn was as tall and strong as it was, really, though nevertheless covered predictably with the same dust as everything else. She moved fast, but stayed well away from the scarecrows, still; the base of one might be a very logical hiding spot for Luke, but something told her he'd be no more logical than her, yet, in that respect.

[Rye]

The area was quiet , without Luke moving there was no other sound for background noise except the wind gently blowing. There were no real rows as such. There were well trodden lanes of crushed back stems, but other than that they were densely packed , all competing for light and space, easy enough to hide in. At least it was a little soft with the vegetation there to provide some kind of floor for her. As she went deeper she would have to push them aside to make room for herself to go into the thicket. They pulled back easily and sprung back into place when she let go , leaving no sign they had been tampered with. As she walked she would soon come to a flattened out space, not that big really. It was kind of like a little crop circle. In the centre stood a wooden post, one where there should be a scarecrow. Only at this one there wasn't. Presumably taken down for repair , hopefully , and just this one.

[R682]

"Luke?" Hayley called out softly, as she came to the crushed, opened area. That was kind of missing the point of hide and seek, but she couldn't help but hope he would reply in some way. Even the simple sight of the pole she found unsettling. There were all kinds of completely innocuous explanations for it; maybe it had never held a scarecrow in the first place, maybe it served some other function completely. There was no reason at all that her brain should leap immediately to the ridiculous notion that something had freed itself and walked away. Nevertheless, she found herself carefully scrutinising the ground around the base of the pole for any sign that that might be the case, with frequent intermittent glances over her shoulder and all around her. Not that there was any reason to think that the supernatural would leave footprints, even like the scuffs she herself was leaving in the dust.

As logic reasserted itself, she decided to use the pole as a marker point, just as Luke no doubt would have done had he found it. She could make short trips out into the corn in every direction in the hope of stumbling across him. The uniformity of the corn certainly didn't make hide and seek much fun; it was more like a random search pattern than anything involving skill or intuition. Just as long as there wasn't anything else looking for her, in a similar way, though.

[Rye]

There was nothing around to indicate movement , just the ring of crushed back crops around the post. There was an odd ominous feeling around the place, that she shouldn't be there. The silence was broken by the sound of thrashing a little distance away , the stems moving a little from the directions it came from , but nothing apart from swaying stems was seen. The logical thought would be that it was Luke moving around just out of her line of vision. But a few things threw doubt on that idea, the movements were violent , with pauses , like whatever it was was lumbering or stumbling , a slow and then fast ripple of moving stems of corn. It moved in a half circle , when ever Hayley thought she could pin point where it was , it moved on and then stopped. It seemed to be watching her , and there was a good chance that if it was Luke , it would have said something already.

[R682]

"Luke?" Hayley had called out at first, then again, "Luke?!" as her alarm swiftly rose. It was surely clear by her tone that if Luke was playing games, he needed to reply immediately. But once the movements became heavy and aggressive, Hayley lapsed into an instantaneous panting silence. Instinctively, she turned at once to flee and pelted away, the harsh ground ripping at her feet. But the she was forced to double back on herself as the thing came circling around on her, difficult to ascertain which way exactly was 'away' under these conditions, and in her thumping panic. It felt as if she were being herded, like a sheep, and driven ever back inwards towards the pole. The thing to do would be to break away and commit, but Hayley was running on pure reflexive animal instinct by now; watching events unfold from a panting inner perspective a long way away down a long dark tunnel, as her body reacted by itself.

'Stand there and face it' another part of her said, with cool detachment, 'stand there and see'. If it were anything lethal with cruel intent, blind and aimless fleeing didn't seem too likely to help at this point. There was no house door in easy reach, and even the edge of the field was an impossible distance away against the speed of the thing's surges. Better to find out once and for all whether this was as bad as it seemed. But that was her abstracted mind talking, completely cut off by now from her frenzied reptilian brain, watching herself run hither and thither like a cornered mouse, sweating and gasping and sobbing in equal measure. If the thing showed itself, by now she might be pumped up enough to fight like a wild thing, but that was only if it did before she tired herself out completely. Naturally, she'd wet herself by now, even though she wouldn't yet have known she needed to. But she wasn't even thinking about that in the slightest. Luke, though... Luke... What had happened to him? Was it already too late?

[Rye]

Nothing replied to her calls. As she pinpointed it's position another sound of crashing was heard behind her , this one was lighter and smoother , breaking into the ring was the one eyed child in question , he saw her and cursed "aw come on , how did you know I would be here!" he sighed exasperated. The thing in the crops on the opposite sighed had stopped moving , whatever it was , it seemed to back off , or at least stop circling now the number of people had doubled" He looked over her "what's got you so scared anyway , it's just corn" he laughed "wanna head back or you wanna take your turn?" he asked , a little annoyed , but was having fun, unaware of the terror roller-coaster that his sister had gone through.

[R682]

"Shh, shh!" she hushed him, pointing out towards the thing out there in frozen terror, unable to properly enunciate anything more at this point, despite her overwhelming gratitude to see her little brother safe and alive. The inner sides of her shorts stuck wetly to her legs, still hardly of the greatest concern to her, but no doubt immediately signalling to her brother the extent of her recent distress. She'd worry about what it forebode, and mortified to have it known that it had happened again, if she wasn't convinced that their lives were still in imminent mortal danger.

"This way!" she seized Luke's hand, once again reasonably sure where the thing was, and therefore the direction to move to go directly away from it. If they could just get to the edge of the field... There was the outside toilet, if nothing else. Perhaps they could barricade themselves in there. No time to negotiate with Luke, anyway. If he wasn't convinced by the look on her face, the sheer physical force of her adrenaline charged pull on his arm would carry him along with her whether he wanted to or not. There was no longer any thought in Hayley's conscious mind of staying and waiting to see what stalked them.

[Rye]

Luke sighed and stomped after her as he looked out to the wall of green "there's nothing there" he said turning to look at her and seeing what a state she was in and sighed "you're wet Hayley" he said , feeling a little smug , she might have control at night but at least he mastered holding it during the day. He stumbled as he was dragged into the stems , getting slapped by the corn cobs on the way through , only having one arm to shield himself. He went with her until they emerged in front of the farm house and yanked back , at least slowing her a little "hey now stop this and explain" he said , breaking free and folding his arms , the sun was starting to dip , grandma would be looking for them to call them to dinner soon.

[R682]

"Is it coming?" Hayley panted, her voice finding her at last. "Is it following us?"

Surely, had it wanted to, it would have surged after them as they made their way directly out of the corn field? It had had plenty of opportunity. Now, it seemed far less likely that whatever it was would break cover into the sunshine to pursue them, having passed up that chance. She knew it had before, the previous night; but that was under cover of darkness. Here in the light seemed far less possible, especially under the lens of Luke's obvious skepticism.

"There is something!" she insisted, her certainty flagging along with her panic. "There... was. Didn't you hear it?" She couldn't believe that he wouldn't have done, wherever he had been hiding. Was it all just in her head, she began to doubt herself. Was it just her, going crazy? "You'd have wet, too," she insisted defensively. But he hadn't, and she had; and suddenly, that was the issue at hand, and not at all the other, seemingly imagined, craziness. She looked down at her dusty, battered feet in defeat, and let herself complete the act, feeling one last long rivulet come pulsing warmly down her leg to puddle at her heel. Maybe she should be in diapers; even if she didn't end up so after this, she probably should be. "Am I just losing my mind?!" she sobbed abruptly to Luke, staring out towards the corn field, unable to believe there was no longer even the slightest sign.