Jake is my friend, he is tall, taller than me, he has bright, blood red eyes that glow in the dark, he hangs outside from a tall pole resembling a crucifix. I stuffed him myself with the finest, cleanest strands of straw, I put my father's old sunday best on him, a dark brown jacket and pants with bright gold suspenders, a pearly white dress shirt, and a yellow bow tie.
"Hey Jake if you ever get a date set me up with her sister." I often joked with him as I went to work in the barn.
His stitched smile was comforting to me, and made me feel as though he cared about me, since I am all alone on my desert farm he is all the company I have, ever since my father died. With no neighbours for miles, and the people in town not liking me much since I am a little whacky in the head according to their standards I was ostracized from my peers. Alienation didn't suit me much, but there was nothing I could do so I worked in the barn turning farmers corn into meal. Since I was the only one who could afford the machine to make corn meal farmers all over the county would drop off corn for my to grind up for them, for a reasonable price.
Often times I'd awake seeing bags of corn at my front door with an order note and payment up front, then spend a few days making it into meal in my barn. Lonely work for sure, since not even my customers spoke to me, often I considered selling it all and moving to the city, that was until I found him in the barn. Buried under some old junk I decided one day to organize I found buried under a pile of cement bricks a roll of carpet. Feeling something in the roll I undid the tie and rolled it out, and inside to my surprise was Jake.
An old scarecrow that my father, grandfather, or even my great grandfather hid away in the barn, he had many holes in his potato sack skin, and his clothes were dirty and ugly. So I cleaned him up, stuffed him up with fresh straw, set him up with new clothes, and put him out in the field on a pole I also found in the barn. Loneliness was not too bad with Jake, for I had someone to talk too, I didn't even have to come up with a name because inside his old shirt collar was his name stitched into the tag.
Jake, Jake the scarecrow my good friend, my best friend. On hot days I'd take him off the pole and have him help me in the barn on the grinder. During evenings I ate dinner with him, he never ate though, I guess I never had anything he preferred. Then at night I laid him to bed in my father's old room before going to bed, and in the morning I woke him up for breakfast before going to work once again.
This routine continued for over a year, during which I noticed my workload slowed down considerably. Farmer's would drop off their corn and never pick it up, and my customers seemed to stop coming suddenly without any reason given. I started to fear that someone else bought a grinder machine and was undercutting my business, when I didn't get another load of corn for a full fortnight I decided to get into town and investigate. Leaving Jake to mind the farm I drove into town and decided to check out the general store for news.
Marvin wasn't inside, even though the open sign was there I found no one inside, odd I thought, so I checked the bar, there was no one there, I checked the sheriff's office and it was the same there too. All over town there was no one there, stopping off at city hall I checked to see if there was a town meeting, but it was vacant and left unattended by anyone. Walking back out my eyes were drawn to the bulletin board, it was filled with familiar faces, many of which were his customers. Checking the dates on the notices I saw that they disappeared when I got their corn shipment, but that didn't seem right.
What happened to them after they dropped off their corn was a mystery I wanted to solve. Getting back into my pickup truck I drove back down the road to my farm, carefully scanning for anything odd I missed on the drive into town. Finally I saw it out my passenger window, a few miles from my farm was the Hitchens dairy farm. Now Mike Hitchens was a very rich many, but I still couldn't figure how he could afford so many trucks, a police car, and several other expensive looking vehicles.
Pretty much the whole town seemed to be parked outside Mike's farmhouse, so I decided to check to see what was going on, though I suspected he was having a party or pulling a prank on me, but I guess it was to hide the fact that I was scared to find out the truth. Climbing out of my truck I suddenly smelled a horrid smell, reminded me of a slaughterhouse my uncle took me to, to see how meat is processed. Walking up the driveway I saw the vehicles were covered in filthy, as if they weren't washed in quite awhile, and I noticed the smell got stronger the closer I came to the barn.
Instead of checking there I knocked on the farmhouse and waited for an answer, there was none. I found the door was unlocked and went inside, I called for Mike's name over and over again as I searched his deserted home. Lunch I found rotting on his table and a cloud of black flies filled almost every room of the house. As if attracted to something rotting the flies seem more bloated than usual like overfed housecats. Finding nothing else in the house I went out and covered my mouth and nose with my hand, as I had only the barn to check on next.
Walking down the small dirt road towards it I noticed more bloated black flies were covering the silver metallic building, ramming their bodies against the steel barn as if trying to force their way inside. Coming to the door of the barn I paused, unable to move for I saw smeared on the doorknob was a thick coat of blood, dark and still a little damp. Pulling my hand into my sleeve I grabbed hold of the knob and opened it, it gave way easily and inside was absolute darkness. Sounds of thousands of buzzing black flies filled his ears, and a stomach burning smell made me vomit.
When I finished I composed myself and reentered the dark barn, searching for the light switch I found it and with a few moments of hesitation turned it on. The lights above turned on with an electric buzz, sending waves of blackflies flying wildly in the air. Half expecting some gory mess I was surprised to see nothing, there was nothing in the barn except piles of clothes, watches, wallets, and cellphones. I inspected them and found they all belonged to the townspeople, as I walked I noticed the floor was slick with a layer of blood.
Whatever happened to them there was nothing left but their personal belongings, and possibly their blood. No cows were in sight either, they seemed to have vanished with their owners, carefully I searched the barn and found nothing. Gladly I left the barn and felt I could breath more easily as a cold wind was blowing across the desert flatlands. Before I left I noticed something in the field behind the barn, I couldn't make it out in the approaching twilight so I ran towards it hurriedly.
Coming to it I saw it was a deep pit, and inside was a pile of ash. Taking a shovel nearby I shifted through it, and to my horror I found charred bones. Scared beyond belief I ran to my truck and sped off towards home, unable to fully realize what I saw and what it meant. Arriving home I could barely stand to think that everyone in town might have been murdered and burned in the field behind Mike Hitchen's farm. Slowing my breathing I composed myself before I got out of my truck, outside it was dark and I saw the lights were on in my house.
That surprised me since I thought the lights were off when I left, I started up the walkway to my front door and I could hear the pained cries of someone inside. Quickly I ran inside worried for whoever it was, hearing it getting louder as soon as I came through the front door. Trying to pinpoint where the sounds were coming from I walked down the hallway, and to my shock I heard it coming from Jake's room. The door was wide open and the lights were on, my heart skipped a beat as I walked down the hallway hearing loud mushy sounds.
Standing a few inches from the doorway I breathed heavily, and swallowed the dryness in my throat, my stomach felt heavy even though I vomited not too long ago. Shaking wildly I let out a panicked sigh before going through the doorway. There I saw two women, both of them I recognized were from the town, they were crying out in pain and agony but were unable to move or call out loudly. The side of their necks were bleeding heavily and they were both lying down on either side of Jake's chest, who was sucking blood from one of their necks when I walked in; stopping his feeding Jake lifted his now showing his snow white face, wild red hair, and his long bloodied fangs.
We stared at each other, him with a broad blood stained smile, and me almost ready to wet myself. Then he said something to me in a growling high pitched voice.
"Hey Frank, I brought her sister for ya!"